NPA boss: top court sets date for application

The Constitutional Court will hear on February 28 an application that seeks to confirm that President Jacob Zuma was too conflicted to appoint Shaun Abrahams as national director of public prosecutions.

The application was brought by the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac), Freedom Under Law (FUL) and Corruption Watch following a bombshell judgment in the High Court in Pretoria in which it was found that Zuma could not appoint the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head because he was conflicted. The court went on to give those powers to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The high court also reviewed and set aside Abrahams’s appointment, but this order was suspended for 60 days.

Zuma, the NPA and Abrahams are appealing against the judgment. Their appeals are expected to be heard with the confirmation application.

But the application might be moot for the president as efforts are being made to force him to step down as head of state.

It is highly likely Zuma will not be president when the application is heard.

The High Court in Pretoria found in 2017 that the settlement agreement in which former national director of public prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana left office in 2015 was unlawful and ordered that he pay back the R17m golden handshake that he received from the government. The court ruled that, due to looming corruption charges, Zuma had been too conflicted to appoint the boss of the NPA. In the confirmation affidavit by Casac’s Lawson Naidoo, supported by FUL and Corruption Watch, it was argued that if the Constitutional Court found that Nxasana’s golden handshake and Abrahams’s appointment were unlawful, the court “as a matter of logic” would also have to address the issue of whether Zuma was too conflicted to appoint the prosecutions head.

In his appeal papers to the apex court, Abrahams said his appointment had been approved by the Cabinet of which Ramaphosa was part, while Zuma in his notice for leave to appeal argued that the country could not have two presidents at the same time.

IT IS HIGHLY LIKELY ZUMA WILL NOT BE PRESIDENT WHEN THE APPLICATION IS HEARD

/Trevor Samson Unlawful payment: Former NPA head Mxolisi Nxasana, whose R17m severance settlement in 2015 has been ruled unlawful. He has been ordered to pay back the money.