Nxasana eager to head the NPA again

Nxasana keen to resume role

Shaun Abrahams’s lawyers have argued that the embattled National Director of Public Prosecutions was entitled to his job despite admitting that his predecessor’s removal was irrational.

Yesterday, Abrahams’s lawyers mounted a spirited legal defence to save his job in the Constitutional Court after the Pretoria High Court in December declared his appointment as NDPP invalid.

The high court also set aside the settlement agreement between former president Jacob Zuma and Abrahams’s predecessor Mxolisi Nxasana that left him with a R17.3-million golden handshake.

The high court ordered that Nxasana repay the money.

Abrahams’s lawyer Advocate Hilton Epstein said none of the arguments made against Abrahams were about him being unfit to continue as head of the NPA.

Epstein said it was surprising that Nxasana would want to be reinstated.

Nxasana told Sowetan outside court that he would restore confidence in the NPA if he was returned to the job.

“The fact of the matter is that I was still enjoying my job. If I were to be called upon to get back and do my job I would take that with both

‘ ‘ The fact of the matter is that I was enjoying my job

hands,” he said. His lawyer Michelle le Roux argued that Nxasana had exhausted every option possible, including instituting litigation against Zuma, before accepting a golden handshake.

Le Roux said Zuma had lied under oath when he claimed in an affidavit that Nxasana had asked to leave his job.

Justice Azhar Cachalia asked Le Roux if Nxasana would still have left his position had Zuma declined to give him a R17-million handshake or would he have opted to stay for the duration of his contract.

Freedom Under Law’s Advocate Wim Trengrove said: “You can’t correct the wrongs [of Zuma] by leaving what he sought to achieve still in place.”

Trengrove added: “Abrahams was the beneficiary of the president’s abuse of power.”

Le Roux told the court Nxasana’s lawyer’s offices were broken into and the records of correspondence between him and Zuma disappeared.

This allegedly happened after Nxasana had met Zuma’s lawyer Michael Hulley and had indicated that he had all the records of his correspondence with the president

Judgement was reserved.

/THULANI MBELE EFF leader Julius Malema and national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi during the party’s march to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto yesterday. The EFF handed over a memorandum to hospital management demanding better service to patients and for...

/ ALON SKUY National Prosecuting Authority head Shaun Abrahams had his appointment as NDPP declared invalid but is mounting a spirited legal defence in the Constitutional Court.

/ TREVOR SAMSON Former NPA head Mxolisi Nxasana feels that he can restore confidence in the body.