Police have launched a manhunt in Polokwane after five awaiting trial prisoners escaped from custody on Wednesday afternoon.
Police spokesperson Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe said the prisoners were being transported from Haenertsburg police station, outside Tzaneen, to Polokwane when they allegedly jumped from the back of a moving police van on the corner of Hospital and Landros Maree streets.
“One prisoner who was initially arrested for house robbery committed in the Haenertsburg policing area was re-arrested shortly after the escape,” Ngoepe said.
The remaining four escapees, who were arrested for different crimes which they allegedly committed in the Haenertsburg policing precinct, are still at large.
They include Thomas Nkuna, 34, and Jeffrey Nkuna, 27, from Rwanda village, George Nkuna, 19, from Wisani village and Abel Modiba, 31, from Motjeteng village.
A case of escaping from lawful custody has been opened.
The police are appealing to anyone with information that can lead to the re-arrest of the escapees to contact Colonel Linky Mathebula on 064 756 8218, detective Warrant Officer Andrew Ngamuni on 082 414 3031, Crime Stop on 08600 10111, Crime Line SMS 32211 or the nearest police station.
“Police investigations into the circumstances of the escape are still continuing,” said Ngoepe.
Andrew Chauke, the South Gauteng director of public prosecutions, was grilled during his interview on Wednesday as his past decisions came under fire from the panel tasked with recommending a new National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Chauke, who was the fifth person to be interviewed by the panel, did not have it easy during his interview as he was quizzed about his handling of a case which involved controversial figure and former head of Crime Intelligence Richard Mdluli in relation to the murder of Oupa Ramogibe in 1999.
In 2012, Chauke made a decision to provisionally withdraw murder and related charges against Mdluli.
However, civil organisation Freedom Under Law took the matter to court. The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ultimately overturned a decision by the High Court that the murder charges should be reinstated against Mdluli.
The SCA essentially gave Chauke two months to decide which charges to reinstate. He decided Mdluli would face kidnapping, intimidation and assault charges instead of murder.
“There is evidence and a case for him (Mdluli) to answer,” he said. Chauke said the matter was first an inquest and the charges were provisionally withdrawn. He said the prosecution team convinced him to proceed with the other charges but not the murder charge.
Business interests
He stood by his decision, telling the panel that he would still make the same decision today that he had made back then when he withdrew murder charges.
Mdluli and his co-accused are expected back in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Monday.
Chauke was also questioned about his business interests and how it would be perceived by the public that he had been nominated by two business people. Chauke said he was involved with a registered company but it was not operational.
Chauke also spoke about factions within the top structures of the NPA.
Earlier, the panel interviewed the first female candidate, current North West chief prosecutor advocate Matodzi Rachel Makhari, who said South Africans had lost confidence in the office of the NPA.
During her interview, Makhari described the “highs and lows” she encountered during her time at the NPA as well as the roles she played.
‘You have to earn respect’
“Trust and confidence [were] eroded. I don’t want to insinuate that someone did something wrong, but the institution was no longer the institution it was in 1998,” she said.
“It appears our country has lost confidence in us. The respect that we enjoyed back then has been eroded,” Makhari said.
“You can’t demand to be respected, you have to earn that respect.”
Makhari said the panel should ensure that whoever they recommend to the president is a great leader.
“You are a leader because you are in a position of power,” she said.
She, however, told the panel that she was aware that her lack of experience in a High Court may be viewed as a shortfall.
A ‘solid’ candidate
Makhari also told the panel that she had been nicknamed “The Dragon Lady” and that no one had tried to interfere with her, adding that she was known to be strict.
“Yes, I understand that some people may perceive a person that has not been at the High Court as not being able to lead, but what we need right now is someone that will lead the institution.”
The panel also interviewed advocate Matric Luphondo who has been the chief prosecutor in Pretoria for well over a decade.
Luphondo is held in high esteem by his colleagues in the capital city and has avoided controversy while in the position. He is considered a solid candidate for the top job.
Luphondo told the panel that the work of the National Director of Public Prosecutions had been some kind of “regular target” for politicians.
He presented himself as a man with a clear plan and vision for the NPA. For every question that was posed to him, Luphondo had practical examples of cases that he had dealt with.
He also assured the panel that he had had the opportunity to manage a number of his peers.
“I have the respect of my peers,” he said.
“The lesson I have learnt is that sometimes I have to take a person by the hand.”
He said should he be appointed for the job, he would ensure that cases such as the one of suspended prosecution boss Nomgcobo Jiba were put to rest.
Former public enterprises minister Barbara Hogan says she knew she was going to be dismissed when former president Jacob Zuma called her into an urgent meeting at his residence in Pretoria.
Hogan was testifying during her second day at the judicial commission of inquiry into state capture on Tuesday.
Hogan told inquiry chairperson Deputy Justice Raymond Zondo that her deputy, Enoch Godongwana, had told her before she was fired that there were rumours of her dismissal at Luthuli House.
She said in October 2009, she received a call summoning her to an urgent meeting with Zuma and former ANC secretary general and now Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe at the former president’s official residence in Pretoria.
“I knew then that I was going to be dismissed…the president never really called me to an urgent meeting,” she said.
Her late partner, Ahmed Kathrada, insisted on accompanying her to Zuma’s house. She said when they arrived at the house, Kathrada sat in the car because he was not invited in.
Hogan said the former president told her that the ANC’s national executive committee had decided to “redeploy” her to Finland as an ambassador.
“There had been lots of rumours that I was going to be reshuffled so I had no idea that I was going to be sent as an ambassador to Finland.”
She told the president she could not ask her partner, Kathrada, who had spent 26 years in jail, to leave “his country, family and friends” and come live with her in Finland for five years.
She said she did not ask for reasons for her dismissal because the president has the prerogative to dismiss.
She explained to Zondo that she also could not stay as an MP because Kathrada was alone most of the time while she performed her duties.
Hogan said she was informed that former minister of home affairs Malusi Gigaba would replace her as minister of public enterprises. According to Hogan, Gigaba had declined a “handover” meeting with her.
Hogan said at the time there was a narrative spun that painted the Cabinet ministers who had been reshuffled and dismissed as “incompetent”.
She also said that issues around her performance were never raised by the former president, prior to her dismissal.
She said while she was aware that she often had “differences of opinion” with Zuma, he had never complained about her performance.
Hogan’s testimony was interrupted by a power failure in the area. She is expected to appear again on Wednesday at 10:00.
In the early 2000s Malusi Gigaba was headed for the top.
He was president of the influential ANC Youth League (ANCYL), which had begun to flex its political muscle inside a party in firm control of South Africa’s young democracy.
Under then president Thabo Mbeki the ANCYL was increasingly claiming the role that Peter Mokaba, a firebrand former leader, had envisaged for it: militant, outspoken and unafraid. And in Gigaba – smart and articulate – the ANC found the right person to lead the so-called “young lions”. The ANCYL started taking part in national debates – about black economic empowerment, transformation, sports quotas – and positioned itself as the progressive and radical wing of Mbeki’s party, with Gigaba at the forefront.
But the ANCYL never veered too far away from Mbeki and although it often took controversial positions to test the political waters, the ANCYL was very much part of the furniture at Luthuli House. Gigaba became an MP in 1999 and was elected ANCYL president three times between 1996 and 2004, the year in which he was appointed deputy minister of home affairs by Mbeki.
Gigaba first served on the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) in 2002 and was re-elected in 2007 after switching his allegiance from Mbeki to Zuma. His higher position on the final list of NEC members reflected this, and he was rewarded with a full ministry in 2010, after Zuma dismissed Barbara Hogan as minister of public enterprises.
He was always considered the leader of the next generation, overtaking his successor during their youth league days, Fikile Mbalula, as a favourite of the Zumaites and was often mentioned as a possible future ANC leader and president by those in the know.
But it was his tenure as public enterprises minister that did much to taint him, with his mandated changes to boards of state-owned enterprises that allegedly left various state companies such as Eskom and Transnet vulnerable to state capture.
On Monday at the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture, Hogan testified about how Gigaba replaced the Transnet board shortly after he was appointed minister and that the board promptly reinstated Siyabonga Gama, who was dismissed after an investigation into tender irregularities.
The Gupta project of grand state capture, however, was to firmly ensnare Gigaba and he was to become closely associated with the parasitic and corrosive nature of institutionalised corruption. Not only were various parastatals opened up to networks of patronage during his tenure at public enterprises, but when he was transferred to home affairs, his department and office went out of their way to assist the Guptas with immigration issues.
The #Guptaleaks emails revealed how he instructed two senior immigration officials to be transferred to India where they assisted the Guptas, while an academic study titled Betrayal of the Promise identified him as one of the central enablers of state capture.
His status in the Zuma ring as a trusted enforcer was confirmed in April 2017 when he and Sifiso Buthelezi were rushed to National Treasury to replace the fired duo of Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas who were dismissed as minister and deputy minister of finance. Gordhan and Jonas had been locked in conflict with Zuma and his network of cronies ever since Zuma showed his hand in 2015 when he launched an open assault on Treasury by firing then minister Nhlanhla Nene.
Gigaba was considered a safe pair of hands, pliable and, unlike Gordhan and Jonas, without the fortitude and conviction to defend the national purse. Treasury insiders spoke of a minister with a lack of experience and knowledge of financial matters who only saw the finance ministry as a pit-stop to the presidency.
He only tabled one budget before being shifted by Ramaphosa after the palace revolt which saw Zuma resign the presidency in February. His position was always considered precarious, alongside that of ministers Nomvula Mokonyane and Bathabile Dlamini, and his retention in Cabinet was interpreted as an attempt to unite the factions that formed before the ANC’s elective conference in December 2017.
Gigaba’s position weakened dramatically over the last two weeks after the Constitutional Court and the Public Protector castigated him for lying in the Fireblade/Oppenheimer saga. And it was further undermined when he had to pre-empt the release of an embarrassing video of a sexual nature.
After Ramaphosa spoke to the ANC’s parliamentary caucus last week, some MPs said it was clear that he wanted Gigaba to go. The president spoke of “doing the right thing when you’ve been found wanting” and “putting the interests of the party before that of the individual”. Exactly a week after the caucus meeting, he did precisely that.
Gigaba was a flashy politician who only wore expensive fitted suits, tailored shirts and what looked like quadruple Windsor knotted ties – he once wore the uniform of an SAA pilot to the opening of Parliament. He liked attention, his private life was the subject of many gossipy stories in Sunday newspapers and his political life arranged depending on the prevailing winds.
His rise was steady and sure and his demise inevitable and public. That’s what happens when you mix with the wrong crowd.
Hogan says “consultation is different from interfering with what a minister does”.
Hogan says that her experience was that the president stopped things from going to Cabinet, and instructed her to withdraw things. Hogan says she will go more into the details, but what was very worrying about that, was that one of those instructions related to Transnet, and there was a potential breach of law.
Cape Town – Afrikaans singer Amor Vittone will only inherit a TV set from her estranged husband, Joost van der Westhuizen’s last will and testament, the court ruled on Monday.
Former Springbok scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen died in 2017 after losing his battle with motor neuron disease.
Judge Hans Fabricius ruled in the High Court in Pretoria that van der Westhuizen’s 2015 will would be declared his true testament.
The legal document was not signed by van der Westhuizen, but by lawyer Ferdinand Hartzenber, who acted as Commissioner of Oath.
According to Netwerk24 it was Vittone’s hopes that the outcome of the court case would declare the 2009 testament, in which she inherits “everything,” the valid testament.
Lawyer Ulrich Roux, acting on behalf of the van der Westhuizen family explained the outcome of the court case, saying: “Joost’s 2015 will has been accepted, and in terms of the will his estate is bequeath to the J-9 Trust, with the two minor children, Jordan and Kylie, being the only beneficiaries of the trust.”
“Amor will only get a television-set that was bequeath to her,” he added in the statement.
WATCH THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW:
Attempts to reach Vittone has been unsuccessful.
The article will be updated when comment becomes available.
A panel assisting President Cyril Ramaphosa with appointing a new National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) has published a shortlist of candidates for the job. They’ll be vetted and interviewed and three names will be given to the president who will then decide on who will lead the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Mandy Wienertakes a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of the shortlist.
Adv Shamila Batohi
Shamila Batohi has been a senior legal advisor to the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court since 2009. Prior to that, she was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in KwaZulu-Natal. She achieved notoriety when she famously led the prosecution of disgraced Proteas cricket captain Hansie Cronje at the King Commission.
In 1995, Batohi was part of a multi-disciplinary team mandated by then-president Nelson Mandela to investigate hit squad activities in the police during the apartheid years.
Batohi has an illustrious pedigree, barring a minor blight. There was a minor controversy around her when a R1250 speeding fine was withdrawn against her when she was the KZN DPP, although this was attributed to an administrative error.
She has sufficient knowledge of the inner workings of the NPA but her stint abroad means she would be coming into the job untainted by the last decade or so of internal politics that has ripped the organisation apart.
Adv Rodney De Kock
Advocates who have worked with Western Cape DPP Rodney de Kock describe him as “fair-minded” and “independent”. While he’s lauded as a very capable manager, he is not known for his litigation skills and is said to rely heavily on Zuma prosecutor Adv Billy Downer for guidance in complex legal matters. Having said that, he is very experienced in the role of DPP as he’s been in his office for nearly fifteen years.
It was De Kock who negotiated the plea bargains with the killers in the high profile Dewani case and he also drove the extradition of the Honeymoon murder accused.
De Kock is not seen as a firebrand or particularly dynamic but he is well regarded by his underlings. Crucially, he is viewed as “incorruptible” and it is thought that he is a real contender for the top job.
Adv Andrea Johnson
Andrea Johnson is a petite, fiery prosecutor, one who is regarded by her colleagues as highly principled. She says it like it is, but will always ensure her actions are proper and that she is “doing the right thing”. Johnson, who was schooled in the small KwaZulu-Natal town of Scottburgh, was fast-tracked through the echelons of the civil service.
Her first job was prosecuting in Alberton before she did a short stint in the district courts where she was the first junior advocate to secure a life sentence at the time. She became a senior state advocate in the late 1990s, and in 1999 was amongst the first batch of prosecutors assigned to the Scorpions special unit.
Johnson has worked closely with former prosecutor Gerrie Nel on several high profile cases and was mentored by him. She was part of the team who successfully convicted former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi of corruption in 2010. She was also Nel’s junior in the prosecution of Oscar Pistorius. After Nel left to head up AfriForum’s private prosecutions unit, Johnson led the NPA’s team against Pistorius in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
Adv Matric Luphondo
Matric Luphondo has been the chief prosecutor in Pretoria for well over a decade. He is held in high esteem by his colleagues in the capital city and has avoided controversy while in the job. He is considered a solid candidate for the job of NDPP.
If you’re looking for a defining moment in Luphondo’s career, cast your mind back to 2008 when Gerrie Nel was arrested on trumped up charges at his house and hauled before court. It was the height of the vicious battle between the SAPS and the Scorpions and Nel was leading the investigation into Selebi.
It was early in January and most court officials were still on leave. It had been a confusing day of scuttling between courts and finally, after 16:00, when business was closed for the day, Nel was about to appear in the Magistrate’s Court. Only, there was no prosecutor. Luphondo arrived to the rescue in shorts and flip flops and took on a case he knew nothing about. He also had the foresight under pressure to see that it was a nonsense stitch-up and he declined to prosecute Nel, releasing him from custody. His colleagues point to that decision as an indication of his integrity.
Mike Makhari
Very little is known about Mike Makhari, except that he is an attorney. He’s also not to be confused with the more high profile senior counsel William Mokhari. (If you know more about him, let us know!)
Adv Naomi Manaka
Naomi Manaka is an advocate at Maisels chambers in Sandton, where she has worked alongside some of the best criminal silks in the country. Manaka did her pupillage with Adv Gcina Malindi SC. Her colleagues describe her as very fair and capable. “She could be a character out of Suits or The Good Wife,” one quipped.
Manaka spent many years as a regional court magistrate and knows the workings of the justice system inside out, having gained first-hand experience. She was the presiding magistrate in the Benedict Vilakazi rape trial. She also did a stint as an acting judge in Johannesburg. Manaka definitely mixes it up in the big leagues, having taken briefs from various government departments, the ANC and former Gauteng Hawks boss Shadrack Sibiya.
Adv Siyabulela Mapoma
Siyabulela Mapoma, also known as ‘Saaks’ has experience across the legal board, having done stints as a prosecutor, a magistrate, at the Bar and in the corporate sector.
Mapoma is currently an advocate at the Bhisho Bar, practicing in East London and Mthatha. He was also a member for a time at the Maisels group in Johannesburg. He was admitted to the Bar in 2012, after leaving the NPA where worked under Glynnis Breytenbach. Mapoma has an LLB from the University of Transkei and an LLM from UNISA. He was a public prosecutor in Mthatha, Butterworth and Elliotdale before becoming a magistrate at the Elliotdale Magistrate’s Court.
He then went on to become a senior state advocate at the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria. He was a deputy director of public prosecutions at the Scorpions and the regional head of the Scorpions in the Eastern Cape.
After leaving the NPA, Mapoma got a job as the general manager for legal services at Transnet.
Mapoma is a dark horse but has the credentials for the job of NDPP.
Adv Simphiwe Mlotshwa
While temporarily filling the role of acting DPP for KwaZulu-Natal after Shamila Batohi left for the ICC, Simphiwe Mlotshwa stood firm. He insisted on persisting with the prosecution of two ANC politicians implicated in the infamous ‘Amigos’ trial. He reportedly had a fall-out with his superiors at the NPA over his decision to proceed with the prosecution of MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu and legislature speaker Peggy Nkonyeni on corruption charges.
As a result, Mlotshwa was removed from his job as DPP for refusing to bow to pressure. According to Johan Booysen, who was head of the Hawks in KZN at the time, Mlotshwa was also put under immense pressure by acting NDPP Nomgcobo Jiba to prosecute him. Again Mlotshwa dug in his heals and refused and made an affidavit to this effect. Mlotshwa was subsequently replaced by the highly controversial Moipone Noko.
Mlotshwa went into private practice and is currently at the KZN Bar with chambers in Pietermaritzburg.
Adv Moipone Noko
Since being appointed as DPP in KZN, Moipone Noko has courted controversy. She was viewed as an ally of former president Jacob Zuma and Jiba, now suspended. She has been on the sharp end of criticism from Booysen, who argues that she has “made a mockery of the principle of prosecution without fear or favour since she was appointed by Nomgcobo Jiba”.
Noko instituted charges against Booysen related to the so-called Cato Manor death squad. She also withdrew charges against businessman Thoshan Panday (a business partner of Zuma’s son, Edward) and Colonel Navin Madhoe, who Booysen says attempted to bribe him with R2m to scupper a corruption investigation. Booysen laid charges of defeating the ends of justice against Noko in 2016 after she had given misleading evidence in that matter.
In 2013 Noko was also behind the withdrawal of charges of intimidation against one of the president’s wives, Thobeka Madiba-Zuma. The charge had been lodged by a Madiba-Zuma’s apparent 23-year-old domestic worker.
Earlier this year, retired KZN judge President Chiman Patel was awarded damages of R900 000 – believed to be one of the biggest ever awards in South Africa – in his claim against Noko for malicious prosecution and reputational damage.
He sued Noko and the NDPP after being charged with crimen injuria relating to an incident in his chambers with a stationery clerk in 2013. He was summoned to appear in court a year later. Two months later, when the trial was due to start, the charge was withdrawn without explanation.
Gauteng Judge Aubrey Ledwaba was critical of Noko in his ruling.
“She [Noko] was not a good witness and did not execute the duties reasonably expected from a Director of Public Prosecutions. She gave long-winded and argumentative answers when she testified,” the judge said. He found that the Noko, “who was intent on seeing the matter being heard in a criminal court”, the national director, and the prosecutor handling the case had acted with an intention to injure Patel.
Noko is a surprise inclusion in the shortlist as her appointment as NDPP would be seen as a continuation of the Jiba era and would draw harsh criticism from civil society and opposition parties.
Adv Silas Ramaite
Ever the bridesmaid, never the bride, Silas Ramaite is currently the acting NDPP and has been asked to do the job as a stand-in on many occasions.
Usually his position is deputy national director responsible for administration and the office for witness protection. He has served as deputy director for 15 years.
A career prosecutor, Ramaite holds several degrees including an LLD specialising in Constitutional Law from UNISA. He was granted silk status in 2001. He has also worked as an interpreter, clerk of the court, public prosecutor and magistrate. In 1997, he was the chief evidence leader in the Goldstone Commission appointed to look into allegations arising from the TRC.
In 2011, Ramaite was in trouble with the law after he allegedly crashed his luxury Jaguar into a Nissan bakkie in Limpopo while driving drunk. The Louis Trichardt Magistrate’s Court released him on R1000 bail, but charges of reckless and negligent driving and driving under the influence were later withdrawn, pending blood test results.
More recently, he’s been at the centre of a sex tape controversy in the NPA. City Press reported that there is CCTV footage showing Ramaite in a compromising position with a female guard in his office. Reports suggest the video may have been used to blackmail him and the story stinks of a dirty tricks campaign as part of an attempt to smear him.
Ramaite is seen as a fine stand-in but not necessarily suitable for the main job. He’s also an unlikely candidate for the position, primarily because of his age. He was on the verge of retirement this year and according to the NPA Act, the NDPP is a “non-renewable term of 10 years, but must vacate his or her office on attaining the age of 65 years”. However, the law does allow the president to retain an NDPP beyond 65 years if in the public interest but for no longer than two further years.
If Ramaphosa is playing for time, he could appoint Ramaite as a stop gap for the next year or two while he waits to see what happens with the elections next year and consolidates his power within the ANC. Then he can appoint the candidate he would really like in the position.
Adv Andrew Chauke
Andrew Chauke is the DPP for South Gauteng, which makes him Joburg’s chief prosecutor. Some in legal circles have raised concerns about Chauke’s potential appointment. In doing so, they have raised two potential issues.
In 2012, Chauke made a decision to provisionally withdraw murder and related charges against then head of Crime Intelligence Richard Mdluli, in relation to a 1999 murder of Oupa Ramogibe. Civil organisation Freedom Under Law took the matter to court and ultimately the SCA overturned a decision by the High Court that the murder charges should be reinstated against Mdluli. Instead, the SCA essentially gave Chauke two months to decide which charges to reinstate. He decided Mdluli would face kidnapping, intimidation and assault charges instead of murder. The Mdluli case was extremely divisive within the NPA, causing a rift between two factions within the organisation.
Chauke also hit controversy when convicted drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti alleged in a sworn affidavit that he had been paid money by the Kebble family. It was claimed that Chauke had been bribed with cash and a set of golf clubs to issue an arrest warrant against a business rival of the Kebbles. He was the head of the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit. However, the allegations were never tested in court and some have suggested that these allegations are being reprised now in order to ensure Chauke does not get the job of NDPP.
Last year in a response to a question from the DA in Parliament, Justice Minister Michael Masutha provided some clarity on this. He was asked by DA MP Werner Horn if Chauke had declared the set of golf clubs he had received from Kebble.
In the reply, Masutha said: “I’ve been informed that Chauke denied allegations that he had received any presents, including the golf clubs and bags, from Mr Brett Kebble and in fact, he said that he had never met Mr Kebble.”
Chauke was also recently named in the Bosasa scandal when the company’s CEO, Gavin Watson, was secretly recorded, bragging how he planned to lobby Zuma to appoint someone who would “protect” his allies at the NPA.
A secret recording of a meeting between Watson, former Bosasa chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi and former prisons boss Linda Mti on May 8, 2015, details Watsons plans to discuss with Zuma the appointment of an NDPP.
“Ntlemeza is the right guy at that place, doing what he can. Now we need to get the right person at NPA. Either we get Chauke in, or Jiba or the woman down in Natal. One of them got to… look at what’s happened to Jiba. Jiba is buggered up in the press, he [Zuma] told me that,” said Watson.
Chauke has denied the “patently false and defamatory allegations” that he said appeared to paint him as being “captured” by Bosasa.
He is seen as one of the frontrunners for the position.
Adv Glynnis Breytenbach
Breytenbach was a career prosecutor who was a member of the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit and dealt with high profile cases. She was suspended from the NPA ostensibly for her handling of a complex mining rights case involving Kumba Iron Ore and Imperial Crown Trading.
However, she has always insisted that she was pushed out because of her insistence to prosecute Mdluli for corruption and fraud. She claimed that Jiba and senior prosecutor Lawrence Mrwebi were behind her suspension.
Breytenbach was cleared of all charges against her, but she left the NPA and joined the DA, subsequently becoming an MP and the party’s shadow minister of justice. Her appointment as NDPP may be seen as problematic because of the contentious nature of her suspension, however she is extremely experienced.
It could be argued that Breytenbach is politically tainted because she has joined the DA. Almost all the NDPPs in the past have been open card-carrying members of the ANC. Bulelani Ngcuka was even the leader of the party in the National Council of Provinces. There is also the argument that Ramaphosa could never appoint someone who is a member of an opposition party. There is something to be said for the credibility of an institution being enhanced by somebody who identifies with the opposition and Ramaphosa would be sending a strong message about rehabiliting the credibility of the NPA if he were to go against cadre deployment. Some legal minds say that according to the law, the president needs to decide on a candidate in consultation with Cabinet and the chances of an ANC Cabinet approving Breytenbach are slim.
Conclusion
The NPA is in dire need of strong leadership. Above all, prosecutors need a capable manager who has the wisdom to choose good lawyers to support them. The preference of many prosecutors I’ve spoken to is to have someone from within the organisation lead them, rather than an outsider being parachuted in. But the history of the NPA over the past decade makes it difficult to find someone who isn’t seen as being from one camp or another. The NPA needs a complete overhaul and is desperate for a director who will instil confidence in the organisation.
Perched on a shelf at the entrance to Tilana Stander’s Cape Town home is the Afrikaans word for love – liefde – and wooden ornamental hearts tapped the wall gently in the summer breeze.
The peaceful home she shares with her husband Rikus is very far removed from her childhood home in Pretoria.
That was where she grew up as the daughter of Joao “Jan” Roderigues, a member of apartheid’s feared Security Branch and the man who will stand trial in January for the murder of anti-apartheid activist and school teacher Ahmed Timol.
Timol was arrested in 1971 and the police in the room at the time, including Roderigues, said the young teacher and activist from Roodepoort threw himself out of a window on the 10th floor of John Vorster Square, now Johannesburg police station.
Timol’s family refused to believe this and the National Prosecuting Authority held another inquest last year, overturning the 1972 finding that he died by suicide. Were it not for an email to the Ahmed Timol Foundation by Stander, he might not have been traced to answer questions about that fateful day on October 22, 1971.
The developments in 79-year-old Roderigues’ case offers hope to other families in a similar position to the Timols, that they might also get answers from other police officers who have created new lives for themselves.
Roderigues had in the meantime, left the police and carved out a new career for himself as a prolific author of books about nature and wildlife, running a website promoting his work that has since been deactivated.
Stander says she has not spoken to her father for years, nor does she want to because of an extremely difficult childhood.
But when she read that the foundation was battling to track him down, she made up her mind and sent a simple message to their website.
“I said: ‘I’m the daughter. The man is still alive. He’s not dead as they say on television’,” Stander told News24.
“They were using the wrong name,” she said, adding that he now goes by the name Jan and his surname was spelt differently to what they had.
“It was no problem to me to give him over to Imtiaz,” she says, referring to Timol’s nephew Imtiaz Cajee who has campaigned relentlessly to find out what really happened to his uncle.
She said Cajee called her and said: “I can’t believe it! Seriously?”
“I want to help the Timol family get closure on this because that is what he owes them,” she said.
As a result of the new inquest, Roderigues was expected to go on trial next year. Roderigues will also apply for a permanent stay of prosecution but this process must be completed by the trial date of January 28, 2019.
Cajee told News24 that Stander’s contact with them was a “massive breakthrough”.
“Up to that particular point, we were totally in the dark. We thought he was dead, or he had left the country.”
For Cajee, the death of his uncle and another uncle going into exile during apartheid had a profound effect on his life.
“It has been a very long journey,” Cajee said of the family’s relentless pursuit of the truth.
He also hopes that other people who have recollections of that period – from police officers, to cleaners to administrative staff will also come forward to assist other families in the way they have been helped.
Stander said that although sending the email gave her a sense that she had done the right thing, she also “crashed”.
It opened a wound from a painful childhood that she says only started healing when she packed up and left home after writing her final exams at school.
For the “flower child who loved everybody”, home life was very difficult.
He father did not talk about his police work, she says.
“He would intimidate us a lot,” she says of herself and her six siblings. She does not talk to them anymore and says they think she is crazy.
“I tried so hard to get out of that house,” says Stander.
“He’s only biologically tied to me.”
She said she was horrified by apartheid and hated policemen in those days.
It took years of psychotherapy, self-care lessons and breathing exercises to leave those years behind.
“I am in a totally different space at the moment.”
When contacted for comment, Roderigues said he did not want to discuss any of the issues raised.
“No I don’t want to talk about that stuff anymore.”
2018-11-12 14:13
