Interviews for NPA chief must be held in public, high court rules

THE GAUTENG High Court, Pretoria, yesterday agreed with civil society group Right2Know Campaign’s application to have the National Director of Public Prosecutions interviews open to the public.

The group approached the court to oppose President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to conduct the interviews in secrecy, saying that holding the interviews in secret would be unconstitutional.

The High Court agreed with R2K, ruling that shutting the public out of the interviews would further erode public confidence in the National Prosecuting Authority.

Murray Hunter, R2K Campaign spokesperson, said that the High Court’s decision was not just a victory for them as an organisation but a victory for transparency and for the South African public.

“We believe that the person who’s appointed to that role needs to be appointed through a transparent process and the public has a right to know who the head of prosecutions is going to and that’s why this transparency is so important,” Hunter said.

Neeshan Balton, executive director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, said he did not know what the rationale was for keeping the interviews secret as the Judicial Services Commission and the SABC board interviews had been open and had set a good precedent.

“Those selection processes were open and don’t seem to have hampered the process.

“It would have been better to have an open process that would have either been televised live or which the public would have been able to have access,” Balton said.

He said that an open process reinforces the credibility of the candidate that would be appointed.

“Given the history that we are trying to eradicate from the National Public Prosecutions office it’s a mistake not to have seen this as part of a credibility building exercise.”

Balton added that holding the interviews in secret, away from the glare of the media and public spotlight, did not make any se nse because the names of the 12 shortlisted candidates have already been made public.

The candidates are advocates Shamila Batohi, Rodney de Kock, Naomi Manaka, Simphiwe Mlotshwa, Andrea Johnson and Matric Luphondo. Others are Siyabulela Mapoma, DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach, and KwaZulu-Natal director of public prosecutions Moipone Noko.

The position came under intense scrutiny under former president Jacob Zuma’s nine-year tenure with several appointments and dismissals.

Menzi Simelane, Nomgcobo Jiba, Mxolisi and Shaun Abrahams all served in the position under Zuma’s administration.

Abrahams, who succeeded Nxasana under controversial circumstances, was recently fired from the position by Ramaphosa.

His tenure in the NDPP’s office was shrouded by controversy as he was widely regarded as a Zuma lackey after sitting on the decision to reinstate the 16 charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering against Zuma.

Professor Shadrack Gutto, a constitutional law expert, said the decision to have the interviews in secret would have reduced public confidence in the rule of law in the country.

He said that the NPA was an independent institution which should act without fear, favour or prejudice and there was no reason the interviews of candidates wanting to occupy the NDPP’s office could not be conducted openly.

“We really need to get somebody who is not a political deployee because we have had enough of it,” Gutto said.