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By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


Fire Mrwebi and Jiba, Mokgoro tells Ramaphosa

The retired Constitutional Court justice's report finds the pair are 'not fit and proper to hold their respective offices'.


The Mokgoro inquiry has released a report finding that the Nomgcobo Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi are not fit to hold their senior positions at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), recommending that President Cyril Ramaphosa shows them the door.

The inquiry was appointed to probe Jiba’s role in matters such as the spy tapes debacle and the firing of former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Johan Booysen.

The report from the three-member panel chaired by Retired Constitutional Court justice Yvonne Mokgoro does not mince words, finding that “both Jiba and Mrwebi are not fit and proper to hold their respective offices”.

It also concluded that the pair had not introspected or 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 cannot be trusted with the responsibilities of her office.

“We find that as a senior member of the NPA, Jiba has displayed irreverence to the courts and indifference to their processes, resulting in adverse comments being made about her,” the report further states.

“The series of Jiba’s decisions taken in her capacity as ANDPP, which were all set aside on review, the comments and criticisms levelled against her by the courts have brought the NPA into disrepute.”

Mrwebi, meanwhile, was found to have failed to act without favour, prejudicing the NPA in the process, and also “showed himself to lack an understanding of the law and the legal process”.

“The courts have leveled criticisms and concerns in the manner in which Mrwebi has discharged the duties of his office and conducted himself towards the courts. Mrwebi’s conduct was openly at variance with what is expected of a person in his position,” the report states.

“Mrwebi’s lack of appreciation regarding his behaviour in keeping secret the representations from criminal suspects implicated in the investigation carried out by the NPA into alleged improprieties perpetrated by officials of Crime Intelligence and his admission that he took those representations into account without verifying the truthfulness of their contents, confirms that his decision to withdraw the prosecution of Mdluli was irrational and unlawful,” according to Mokgoro.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

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