Mixed reaction to JZ’S choices
NEWLY appointed Special Investigating Unit (SIU) boss Vasantrai Soni has hit back at his critics, saying he will prove them wrong within a year.
President Jacob Zuma on Friday announced that he had appointed Soni to the SIU and had chosen Mxolisi Nxasana as the new head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Public reaction to the appointments has been mixed, and many people expressed surprise over Zuma’s choice of a relatively unknown Nxasana as the new national director of public prosecutions. Others expressed their reservations about Soni.
Zuma was under pressure to appoint a new NPA head because he had promised the Constitutional Court, in a bid to stop an urgent application by the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac), that he would do so by the end of August.
Casac had threatened to approach the court again to look for an order that would compel the president to make the appointment if he had not done so by yesterday.
Although he welcomed the appointment, Casac executive secretary Lawson Naidoo expressed disappointment with the way in which Zuma had gone about choosing the new director of public prosecutions.
“The manner of the appointment reveals a flaw in the selection process leading to such a critical appointment.
“We have previously called for a more transparent process of making such key appoint-
If I did not think I could do the job, I would not have accepted it
ments so that the public is aware of the character of the appointee and can be satisfied that they are indeed fit and proper persons,” Naidoo said.
“We therefore call on the president to take the nation into his confidence and provide more information on the key strengths and attributes of Nxasana that qualify him to lead the NPA. We believe that the support of the public and others will assist Nxasana to execute his constitutional responsibilities to strengthen the NPA and to prosecute without fear, favour or prejudice.”
Although the NPA appointment was the most highly anticipated, it is Soni’s role as the new SIU boss that has caused much controversy.
His detractors have questioned his suitability for the job, citing a 2005 ruling — while he was an acting judge — in which he gagged the Mail & Guardian from publishing a corruption story related to the Oilgate saga.
But Soni on Friday dismissed his critics. “I do not know what they mean, unless they say that the government is not entitled to my services. I am not going to go into this job to harm our democracy — I would like to enhance our democracy.”
He said he would prove people wrong within a year.
“If I did not think I could do the job and if I did not think I was suitable, I would not have accepted the appointment. The only challenge I set out is: judge me a year later on the way I execute my duties.”
Democratic Alliance MP Dene Smuts said she wished Soni well in his new job.
“I am more than happy to give him the year. I do not think that Mxolisi Nxasana will now run the NPA it is even required. One must accept the appointment.
“The fact that he has frequently appeared for government as counsel does not in itself indicate any inappropriately close relationship to the executive,” Smuts said.
Attempts to speak to Nxasana were unsuccessful, and his phone went unanswered this weekend.
One legal mind in Cape Town had this to say when reacting to Nxasana’s appointment: “Isn’t it amazing that the national prosecutor is an almost completely unknown person?
“The only thing that is not astonishing about his appointment is that he is from KwaZulu- Natal!”
Even well-known Durbanbased senior counsel Kessie Naidu confessed to knowing very little about Nxasana, who has served as president of the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society.
“I only have a little bit of information about the man . . . I must tell you that yesterday when I heard his name on the radio, it was the first time I’d heard the name. But when I saw his picture in the morning, I recognised him.
“There would definitely be some surprise in legal circles. I would have expected a lawyer with a fair amount of experience in the administration of justice, either from the side of the prosecuting authority or from the bar — an attorney who has a track record of experience in the courts concerning the administration of justice,” Naidu said.
But Paul Hoffman, director of the Public Service Accountability Monitor, welcomed the appointment as one that was long overdue.
He said Nxasana’s top priority should be a review of the NPA’s decision to drop corruption charges against Zuma in 2009.
“He must independently decide for himself whether or not he is going to reinstate those charges. That is the litmus test of his independence. If he is able to come up with an objectively defensible decision not to reinstate those charges, then he should tell the public what the basis is for that decision,” Hoffman said.
However, the United Democratic Movement’s Bantu Holomisa said it was “wishful thinking” to expect Nxasana to reinstate the charges.