State capture inquiry hears of the alleged secret plan to oust Nxasana as NDPP

Terrence Joubert was busy working at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in August 2013 when his curiosity was piqued by a telephone conversation his office mate was having.

Colonel Welcome Mhlongo had been seconded from the police’s exhumation unit for a reason Joubert did not quite know, and the two shared office space.

Joubert was in the Asset Forfeiture Unit and considered Mhlongo a friend as the two went about their work in the Durban office of the NPA.

Mhlongo had ended one phone call.

“But the second phone call was when I realised that I need to record this guy,” Joubert told state capture commission chairperson, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

The name of newly appointed National Director of Public Prosecutions, Mxolisi Nxasana, had come up in the same sentences as “murder” and an investigation in Umlazi.

Intrigued, Joubert waited for Mhlongo to turn away slightly before he quietly opened his desk drawer and pulled out his work recording device.

He switched it on and slid it under the newspaper on his desk.

This conversation regarding Nxasana and his short-lived tenure was what the state capture inquiry was interested in on Friday in proceedings that moved at a glacial pace.

According to Joubert, Mhlongo was also spoke to the person on the phone about finding out whether Nxasana benefited from his wife working at the Road Accident Fund (RAF).

Mhlongo’s conversation took place while Nxasana was still doing his meet-and-greet trip around the country, visiting NPA offices to introduce himself and meet everybody.

The Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) had been Nomgcobo Jiba after a long line of controversies over the top job at the prosecutions authority, amid a pall of accusations that former president Jacob Zuma was being protected from prosecution.

Led by advocate Garth Hulley, Joubert explained that the gist of the conversation was that Mhlongo was trying to find out about a murder involving Nxasana, and to use it against him so that Jiba could stay in her position.

Mhlongo also allegedly seemed to want information on Nxasana’s possible relationship with the RAF, since Nxasana’s wife worked there, to find out if there was any embezzlement or any benefit to him.

Mhlongo said he needed someone to just get information on Nxasana “from A to B” out of the RAF.

“The statement he made is that he said Jiba is the best person for the job. This guy with all these criminal things, he should not have been appointed.”

He claimed that he also heard Mhlongo say: “They could deal with Nxasana as they dealt with Gumede”. He had no idea who Gumede was or in what way he had been dealt with.

Joubert said that after the telephone conversation, Mhlongo asked him he knew anybody at the RAF who could be their inside person to get information “from A to B”, and Joubert pretended he did.

Piqued, he tried to steer the conversation back to the topic of murder so he could find out what Mhlongo was up to. The recorder was still on.

Joubert said that he understood there were “two plain clothes guys from uMlazi” working on the murder investigation into Nxasana.

Joubert said that the plan was that after all of this, Jiba would “keep her seat”.

“She would get her job back if these guys could get all these things we spoke about – RAF, the murder docket…she would then be given back (her job),” he said.

In 2015, Nxasana suddenly resigned from his job as NDPP. He had been due to testify at a commission of inquiry into his fitness to hold office. He was given a R17m golden handshake.

It had emerged that he had failed to declare a murder acquittal dating back to when he was either 18 years of age. He was accused of stabbing to death a man who attacked him and his brother. In 1986 he was acquitted.

When Nxasana testified at the commission in June 2019, he said he had heard there were people driving around uMlazi looking for information on him and he had heard that this was because Jiba had been promised the post.

However, before they could continue, the commission ran out of time for the day. Joubert is scheduled to return next Thursday night.

Mhlongo’s lawyer applied for a postponement of his appearance at the commission, but Zondo dismissed it.

However, due to a lack of time, he did not give evidence on Friday.

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