Suspended top NPA prosecutor Advovate Nomgcobo Jiba during a break in the hearing led by retired Constitutional Court Judge Yvonne Mokgoro - who is probing her fitness to hold office in the NPA, 20 February 2019. Picture: Oupa Mokoena / African News Agency (ANA)
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) senior prosecutors Nomgcobo Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi have been dismissed by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The decision was already expected to be announced by the presidency at the end of yesterday.
Parliament will still need to confirm the decision.
This comes after a commission of inquiry – led by Justice Yvonne Mokgoro – found them “not fit and proper to hold their respective offices”.
Attorney Ulrich Roux yesterday said the pair had few avenues left to pursue if Ramaphosa’s final decision supported findings of the commission.
On Wednesday, the commission recommended that Jiba and Mrwebi be dismissed from office.
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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 on the pair’s questionable conduct in several of the 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, 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 cannot 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.
Roux said the inquiry’s recommendations were commendable.
“The report had revealed that they cannot be completely objective and that they (don’t) work without fear and prejudice.
“Considering the gravity of the evidence presented against them, [the president] should reconsider their employment.”
– jenniffero@citizen.co.za
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