Deadline for Jiba and Mrwebi’s reinstatement plea looms

Axed National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) senior prosecutors Nomgcobo Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi have less than ten days to table reasons why parliament should reinstate them in their positions at the NPA.

In a joint meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services and the Select Committee on Security and Justice, a decision was reached that the pair must provide reasons within the set deadline. The decision was made on Friday.

Ramaphosa’s dismissal of both Mrwebi and Jiba came after a commission of inquiry led by Justice Yvonne Mokgoro found them “not fit and proper to hold their respective offices”.

Jiba was deputy national director of public prosecutions and Mrwebi the special director of public prosecutions.

Ramaphosa established a three-member panel inquiry in October last year after suspending the two. It looked into matters raised surrounding the pair’s questionable conduct in several previous and existing court cases.

Some of these cases involved the General Council of the Bar of SA, Freedom Under Law, former president Jacob Zuma, the Democratic Alliance (DA), and former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Johan Booysen.

Mokgoro did not mince her words in her 140-page report. It also found that Jiba and Mrwebi had not taken responsibility for the many problems that befell the NPA, despite both having been involved in litigation on multiple occasions in both their personal and official capacities.

The report found that Jiba’s conduct had the effect of “seriously damaging public confidence in the NPA”, further finding that she showed a “lack of conscientiousness” and could not be trusted with the responsibilities of her office.

On Mrwebi, it found that he failed to act without favour, prejudicing the NPA in the process.

(Compiled by Gopolang Moloko, backround reporting by Chisom Jenniffer Okoye)

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