Jiba denies receiving R100K-a-month Bosasa bribe
The prosecutor's lawyer has questioned the timing of reports coming the day before her inquiry was to start.
Advocate Nomgcobo Jiba. Picture: Gallo Images
The inquiry into the fitness to hold office of two top National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) advocates, Nomgcobo Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi, began on Monday in Centurion.
President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended both Jiba and Mrwebi in October, pending the outcome of the inquiry.
Jiba is the deputy national director of public prosecutions and Mrwebi the special director of public prosecutions.
The inquiry is looking into matters raised on the pair’s conduct in several court cases, which involved the General Council of the Bar of South Africa, Freedom Under Law, former president Jacob Zuma, the DA, and former KZN Hawks boss Johan Booysen.
The courts made adverse findings against Jiba and Mrwebi, and the latter has taken the bid to strike her off the roll to the Constitutional Court.
Over the weekend, it was reported that facilities management company Bosasa’s former chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi’s testimony before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture this week would implicate Jiba and Mrwebi, and several other high-profile individuals.
Secretary at the National Prosecuting Authority Jackie Lepinka is also expected to be named in Agrizzi’s testimony this week for allegedly receiving R130,000 a month – R20,000 for her, with R100,000 for deputy national director Jiba and R10,000 for Mrwebi. Environmental Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane allegedly also received R120,000 a year as a Christmas gift.
Mrwebi denied the allegations and said he had received no money from either Bosasa or Lepinka. Jiba reportedly told the publication she had been informed her name would come up at the commission. She said she never asked Lepinka to collect money for her.
“There is absolutely nothing that I have done that is untoward, for which I would have been paid,” she was quoted as saying.
Lepinka called the allegations “utter rubbish”, while Mokonyane’s spokesperson, Mlimandlela Ndamase, was quoted as saying: “The minister denies such allegations and the accuracy of information provided.”
On Monday, at the start of the inquiry, Jiba’s lawyer, Thabani Masuku, again dismissed the weekend reports.
He maintained his client’s version that she never received any money in untoward circumstances. He questioned the timing of the weekend reports as being highly prejudicial to an atmosphere of fairness.
Evidence leader Advocate Nazreen Bawa clarified at the start of the hearing that it was not a commission, but an inquiry established in terms of the NPA Act, and it would not seek to determine criminal or civil culpability on anyone’s part.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
For more news your way
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
