CR must give NPA its bite

DOZENS of commentators have called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to streamline cabinet and to people it with those qualified and committed to do the job they are tasked with. He has already indicated that he intends to do exactly that.

But he needs to do more than just flush the bloated, bent and floundering cabinet he inherited and infuse it with new blood. He needs to find a way to quickly restore the independence and efficacy of this country’s state institutions that are crucial to our constitutional democracy. Under former president Jacob Zuma, most of these institutions were peopled with his acolytes and lost all credibility in the eyes of the citizenry.

First among these institutions that need attention is the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Its record during Zuma’s tenure has been dismal and the courts have found it wanting in numerous matters related to the former president.

Many of the court judgments expose National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams as having shamelessly shielded Zuma in, among other things, his fight against more than 780 corruption- and fraud-related charges.

Despite the Supreme Court of Appeal decision setting aside the NPA’s 2009 decision to withdraw charges against him, Abrahams has been slow to reinstate them.

He also, without even the vaguest cause, sought to pursue criminal charges against Zuma’s most vociferous critic, former finance minister Pravin Gordhan.

The North Gauteng High Court also set aside what it termed Abrahams’s clearly irrational and expedient decision to withdraw charges of perjury and fraud against his deputy Nomgcobo Jiba, another Zuma acolyte. It had also instructed Zuma to hold an inquiry into Jiba and Special Director of Public Prosecutions Lawrence Mrwebi’s fitness to hold office in the NPA.

In a final defiant gesture to the courts, Abrahams has refused to step down in the face of a court ruling that his own appointment, at the behest of Zuma, was unlawful and invalid after the R17-million golden handshake Zuma gave to ensure his more independent predecessor Mxolisi Nxasana left. By denuding the NPA of its independence and peopling it with staff whose loyalty to him took precedence over their ability to do their job, Zuma did more than just secure his own safety – and that of his state-capturing benefactors – from prosecution. He also robbed the institution of its morale and its ability to do its job.

Zuma and his henchmen in cabinet, did the same hatchet job on the supposedly independent Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation – better known as the Hawks – which was tasked with dealing with corruption, commercial crime and organised crime.

Poor policing and a weak prosecutorial body in a country where serious violent crime, corruption and commercial crime is so flagrant is problematic on every level. Ramaphosa has little chance of implementing change until this is corrected.

He needs to make sure the NPA can again fulfil its mandate to prosecute “without fear, favour and prejudice”.