Court to rule on Nxasana affidavit

The High Court in Pretoria will have to decide next week if it will allow former national director of public prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana’s affidavit as part of the case to have his settlement and golden handshake reviewed and set aside.

The High Court in Pretoria will have to decide next week if it will allow former national director of public prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana’s affidavit as part of the case to have his settlement and golden handshake reviewed and set aside.

Corruption Watch and Freedom Under Law launched an application in November 2015 to have the settlement agreement, which led to his resignation as prosecutions chief, reviewed and set aside.

The settlement was reached in 2015 and included a payment of R17m, which Nxasana said he was prepared to pay back.

The case was pencilled in for Monday next week.

The two civic organisations want national director of public prosecutions Shaun Abrahams’s subsequent appointment reviewed and set aside.

Nxasana had applied for condonation in filing his affidavit late in the proceedings. He filed an affidavit to set out his version of events only after President Jacob Zuma, responding to Freedom Under Law and Corruption Watch’s allegations in 2016‚ had said Nxasana had told him he would willingly leave.

Nxasana said this was a lie and he had never made a request to the president to vacate the office.

David Lewis, Corruption Watch’s executive director, told Business Day that condonation still had to be granted for Nxasana’s affidavit. However, he said their case was not entirely dependent on Nxasana’s affidavit as they had launched the application without having any indication that Nxasana would file the version of events he filed. The affidavit merely strengthened their case, Lewis said.

Nxasana said in his heads of argument he was able to take up the post of prosecutions chief.

In his answering papers, Abrahams said Nxasana had relinquished his position as prosecutions chief voluntarily. Nxasana’s opportunism was “blatant and transparent”.

Corruption Watch and Freedom Under Law have also asked the court to order that Nxasana still hold office as national director of public prosecutions, that he must refund the settlement amount paid, and that the president, due to conflict of interest, may not take any decision relating to the position at the National Prosecution Authority. Such decisions, they said, should be taken by the deputy president as Zuma would be facing corruption charges if the national director of public prosecutions did not withdraw the charges against him.

The decision by former prosecutions chief Mokotedi Mpshe to drop the corruption charges against Zuma was set aside by the high court in 2016.