How did pop-up NGO get NPA boss’s security form?
Former prosecutions boss Mxolisi Nxasana has questioned the intentions of a newly formed nongovernmental organisation seeking to enter a court case about his controversial departure from the National Prosecuting Authority and demanded to know how it obtained his state security clearance — a confidential document.
The Centre for Defending Democratic Rule (CDDR) — formed six weeks ago — has applied to be a friend of the court in a battle between President Jacob Zuma and nongovernmental organisations Freedom Under Law, Corruption Watch and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution.
CDDR argues that Nxasana cannot be reinstated as national director of public prosecutions because he had resigned on his own accord. The new NGO has attached Nxasana’s security clearance certificate to its papers.
Nxasana has questioned the organisation’s intentions, suggesting it has links with the president and the infamous Gupta family.
“My legal representatives have conducted [an] internet search to try to understand more about CDDR’s history, existence and purpose. They did not yield any results,” he said in court papers.
But, said Nxasana, searches on CDDR chairperson Buyile Matiwane (25) suggested he was a contributor to Independent Media, television channel ANN7 and The New Age.
“These are all media outlets known to be sympathetic to the president,” Nxasana alleges. “It appears to me that the formation of the CDDR and its attempt to participate in the proceedings are ... a strategy to ensure that I do not return to public service as NDPP.”
CDDR was registered in May — “the day before it began seeking admission into this litigation”, said Nxasana.
The Mail & Guardian has established that Matiwane was a ward councillor candidate in the City of Cape Town in last year’s local government elections. He also leads the ANC-affiliated South African Student Congress in the Western Cape. Romeo de Lange and Simphiwe Gwashu are listed as directors of CDDR. De Lange is a former manager in the Western Cape’s department of community safety. Gwashu is a former member of the South African National Defence Force.
In his affidavit, Matiwane said the CDDR wanted to place before the court information that was to have been dealt with by the Cassim inquiry into Nxasana’s fitness for office. “In particular, the centre seeks to ensure that our courts of law determine matters within judicial bounds, avoiding unnecessary judicial overreach.”
Nxasana said: “The founding affidavit does not disclose how the CDDR … came to possess my security clearance form or how they obtained an affidavit from such a high-ranking official, Mr [Simon Jabulani] Ntombela [director of the domestic branch for the State Security Agency, SSA].”
He wants the centre to declare its relationship with Ntombela and the SSA and explain to the court how it got hold of his security clearance.