Mokgoro Inquiry: Jiba’s legal counsel expected to grill Hofmeyr
SUSPENDED national deputy director of public prosecutions advocate Nomgcobo Jiba is hoping her legal counsel will successfully tarnish the credibility of the testimony of Willie Hofmeyr in her bid to retain her job.
Hofmeyr was one of the major witnesses to testify before the Mokgoro Commission, led by retired Constitutional Court Judge Yvonne Mokgoro, tasked to probe the fitness of Jiba and special director of the commercial crime unit Lawrence Mrwebi to hold office in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
The hearings began two weeks ago, in which evidence leaders summoned various witnesses to assist Judge Mokgoro and her panellists advocate Kgomotso Moroka and Thenjiwe Vilakazi to meet the March 9 deadline, to report their findings to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Already incriminating evidence was heard against the two but it is Hofmeyr’s evidence that Jiba’s legal counsel advocate Norman Arendse, plans to ask Judge Mokgoro and her panel to disregard and expunge. In his evidence, Hofmeyr told the commission that the NPA has, since 2011, after the appointment of Jiba as acting head, experienced the abuse of prosecutorial powers to advance political agendas, saying that has been one of the issues that has impacted most severely on the perceptions of, and public confidence in, the NPA.
“The NPA should never be seen as an extension of any political party or to give effect to its agenda. More dangerously, in a number of prosecutions, the NPA has essentially been perceived to be acting on behalf of a faction of the ruling party, such as the prosecutions of those who were opposed to the majority grouping in the ruling party at the time. An example is the prosecution of Gordhan (Pravin Gordhan)”.
Arendse argued that Hofmeyr made similar disparaging remarks, almost four years ago, against former NDPP head Bulelani Ngcuka. He said Hofmeyr wrote an affidavit in March 2015 to the Supreme Court of Appeal, in which the then-npa head Shaun Abrahams was asking the appeal court to dismiss the DA’S application for the reinstatement of 783 fraud and corruption charges against former president Jacob Zuma.
In his affidavit, Hofmeyr claimed that the charges which began in 2005 – were a collusion of Ngcuka, former Scorpions boss Leonard Mccarthy and former president Thabo Mbeki to use the NPA as a tool against Zuma. He also alleged that the criminal prosecution was allegedly aimed at thwarting Zuma’s prospects of replacing Mbeki as ANC president during its controversial Polokwane elective conference in December 2007.
Hofmeyr based his affidavit on an intercepted conversation between Ngcuka and Mccarthy. Hofmeyr said former NDPP Mokotedi Mpshe, was shocked after listening to the “intercepted” conversation – later dubbed the “Spy tapes”. In his affidavit, Hofmeyr said Mccarthy had also discussed his investigation against Zuma, with former minister of intelligence Ronnie Kasrils and took direction from him.
Hofmeyr then wrote: “As far as I am concerned, Kasrils was a confidante with whom Mccarthy could discuss strategies about the Zuma prosecution. I believe he served as an intermediary between Mccarthy and Mbeki”.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) rejected his version as contradictory on October 13, 2017 and ordered the NPA to reinstate the 783 charges against Zuma.
During the hearing, Arendse argued the commission could arrive at the same finding as that of the SCA, saying Hofmeyr’s testimony was not to be trusted and lacked credibility.
Hofmeyr’s legal counsel Annade Theart made a failed bid to block Jiba’s counsel to cross examine Hofmeyr on the affidavit he made at the spy tapes hearing. Theart argued that Ramaphosa had instructed the Mokgoro Commission to focus on the fitness of Jiba and Mrwebi to hold office. She said cross-examining her client would extend the scope of the panel, but Judge Mokgoro disagreed.
She allowed Jiba’s legal counsel to cross examine Hofmeyr to challenge his credibility on the spy tapes saga.
Jiba’s counsel had initially insinuated that Hofmeyr’s testimony was apparently based on his unhappiness about the appointment of Jiba as the “first black African woman” to the post of acting NDPP.
Hofmeyr denied the insinuation, saying experienced prosecutors were overlooked for the job when Zuma made the appointment in 2011.
Former senior NPA prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach, during her testimony, told the inquiry that advocate Thoko Majokweni was one of the black prosecutors who was overlooked for the job by Zuma.
Now, a date has to be set to allow Jiba’s counsel to officially lodge its credibility attack on Hofmeyr. While they hope that Hofmeyr’s evidence would be rejected – the legal team had so far appeared to have failed to challenge his evidence-in-chief that Jiba had failed to meet prosecutorial requirements to charge former Kwazulu-natal Hawks boss, Johan Booysen, for racketeering.
Jiba alleged that Booysen led a team of Cato Manor organised crime investigators – whose alleged primary duty was to kill serious crime suspects and later claim police rewards of R10000 each for their deeds.
Hofmeyr told the inquiry that Jiba failed to meet the NPA’S criteria to prefer such charges against Booysen.
The commission heard that the NPA had a team of more than six experts who were charged to make final decisions on such charges but Jiba apparently only consulted one before charging Booysen.