Summons served on elusive Jiba handed to boss
A SUMMONS for deputy national director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Nomgcobo Jiba to appear in court on charges of fraud and perjury has been handed to her superior, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said yesterday.
Spokesman Velekhaya Mgobhozi said in a statement: “The NPA can confirm that… a summons was served on the NDPP Mr Mxolisi Nxasana, as the employer, in order for him to serve it on deputy NDPP Ms Nomgcobo Jiba, to appear on criminal charges in Regional Court 19, Pretoria on April 21, 2015.”
He said police had difficulty serving the summons on Jiba, and she had failed to co-operate.
“The NDPP had also earlier tried to contact her a number of times for an unrelated meeting, but she failed to respond.”
She had not been at her office, but there was no record of her having applied for leave, he said.
The NPA had decided to prosecute Jiba on two counts of fraud and one of perjury.
This came after the NPA abandoned its attempt to overturn a high court ruling setting aside all charges against suspended KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Major-General Johan Booysen.
“This is in respect of her authorisation of racketeering charges against Major-General Booysen on the basis of having had due regard to the veracity of the said charges.”
Her sworn affidavit was contradicted by the fact that Jiba signed the authorisation two weeks prior to the statement, on which she supposedly based her authorisation, having been deposed.
At the end of February, Judge Trevor Gorven condemned a decision by Jiba, who was acting NDPP at the time, to prosecute Booysen, saying the charges did not meet even the barest of minimum requirements.
“Even accepting the least stringent test for rationality imaginable, the decision of the NDPP does not pass muster,” he wrote in his ruling. “I can conceive of no test for rationality, however relaxed, which could be satisfied by her explanation. The impugned decisions were arbitrary, offend the principle of legality and, therefore, the rule of law and were unconstitutional.”
Booysen, who was head of the now-disbanded Cato Manor serious and violent crimes unit, had been charged, along with his former colleagues, of running a criminal enterprise.
Members of the unit are expected to stand trial on a range of charges, including 28 murder counts, this year. They allegedly carried out paid hits in the KwaZuluNatal minibus taxi wars.
Jiba said in her court papers that the unit acted like an organised crime organisation. Booysen was charged in August 2012 with managing and participating in racketeering. He was also accused of two murders, unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, and defeating or obstructing the course of justice.
Gorven wrote in his judgment that the prosecution had conceded that nothing in the dockets implicated Booysen.
In November the General Council of the Bar announced it would bring a high court application to bar Jiba, special director of the specialised commercial crimes unit Sthembiso Lawrence Mrwebi, and North Gauteng DPP Sibongile Mzinyathi from practice.
Alternatively, it would seek to have them struck from the advocates’ roll.
The office of the NDPP had asked that the Bar bring the applications against the three in terms of section seven of the Admission of Advocates Act.