Probe off, and NPA head stays

ZUMA INTERVENES: ‘WILL DECIDE WHAT IS BEST’

President’s behindthe-scenes resolution fans suspicion of golden handshake for embattled chief of prosecutions.

The controversial national director of public prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana has not resigned from his position, even though President Jacob Zuma stopped the inquiry into his fitness to hold office.

Contrary to speculation that Nxasana had accepted a golden handshake, his lawyer said yesterday the NPA head was staying.

Unconfirmed reports of Nxasana’s resignation made the rounds yesterday morning after the Cassim Inquiry was called off hours before it was due to begin.

Nxasana’s lawyer, Busani Mabunda, said: “He (Nxasana) has not resigned and he is still in that position.”

Speaking in Centurion after the inquiry was called off, Mabunda said he respected Zuma’s decision and would only comment after getting a statement from the president’s office.

“I won’t say I am surprised or not, but the bottom line is it will be the right thing to respect the decision of the president,” said Mabunda.

Cassim Inquiry chairperson Nazeer Cassim told the press briefing in Centurion yesterday that Zuma had unexpectedly on Sunday night instructed him to shut down the inquiry.

Cassim apologised to journalists who had gathered at the venue to attend the first day of the much publicised inquiry. “My mandate has been terminated. I am sorry to have brought you here this morning,” said Cassim.

Presidency spokesperson Harold Maloka said Zuma was in talks with Nxasana. He said the president would take decisions which were “in the best interest of the NPA, Nxasana and the country at large.”

“The presidency will communicate the outcome of such deliberations once they have been finalised,” said Maloka.

Zuma announced his decision to institute the inquiry into Nxasana on July 5 after reports emerged that Nxasana had been denied a security clearance because he had brushes with the law in the past. These included being tried for murder as a teenager in 1985. He had been acquitted.

DA shadow minister of justice Glynnis Breytenbach said her party believed the termination of the inquiry paved the way for Zuma to push Nxasana out of office by offering him a pay-off.

“This has increasingly become the ANC’s way of ridding themselves of those who try to carry out their duties without fear or favour,” said Breytenbach. –