Zuma deal for NPA boss
Agreement reached today, Nxasana to walk on June 1
NATIONAL Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Mxolisi Nxasana has entered into a deal with President Jacob Zuma that will see him leave office on June 1.
At least two sources close to the Presidency and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) claimed that the commission had been called off due to the settlement, which was reached early today.
The inquiry, which was to start this morning in Centurion, was expected to probe whether Nxasana was fit and proper to hold the office.
But minutes after commission chair advocate Nazeer Cassim SC and his two assistants had taken their seats at the Law Reform Offices, he announced that he’d had a late-night call from the pres- idency to stop the commission.
He would give no reasons, saying only: “My mandate is to terminate.”
Nxasana’s lawyer Busani Mabunda said he would wait for the president to provide reasons.
The Cassim Commission of Inquiry was set up following revelations of a previous conviction for assault and that he was arrested and tried for murder in 1985.
The commission was also expected to probe whether Nxasana’s statements in the media, where he alleged there was a plot to have him removed, undermined the office of the NDPP.
Nxasana was thrust into the spotlight in May last year after it emerged that the State Security Agency had not granted him a security clearance because of transgressions including the murder charge although he was acquitted after a self-defence plea.
Zuma announced the commission in July, after calls for his suspension. The inquiry was set up under section 12(6) of the NPA Act, 1998, which states: “Any person to be appointed as national director, deputy national director or director must be a fit and proper person, with due regard to his or her expe- rience, conscientiousness and integrity to be entrusted with the responsibility of the office.”
The Cassim Inquiry had been given six weeks to complete its work and make recommendations. It was to look into: Nxasana’s two separate assault convictions.
Complaints of professional misconduct laid against him with the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society.
His having faced criminal charges for acts of violence.
His arrest and detention on criminal charges.
His issuing or making media statements that undermined or brought the office of the NDPP or the NPA into disrepute.
Nxasana today refused to comment on the settlement, while Zuma’s spokesman Harold Maloka had not yet commented by the time of publication.