NPA Jiba jabber puzzles

19 August 2015 - 02:09 By Sipho Masombuka

The decision to drop the fraud and perjury charges against former deputy director of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba has been slammed as irrational. National Prosecuting Authority head Shaun Abrahams announced the decision on the eve of Jiba's trial, which was scheduled to have started today in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria. He maintained the decision was legally sound.The charges relate to her handling of the case against Johan Booysen, the Hawks head in KwaZulu-Natal. He and the Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit he headed were charged with racketeering. In February last year, Durban High Court Judge Trevor Gorven dismissed the charges and said Jiba's decision to pursue the case against Booysen was "arbitrary".He added that her actions offended "the principle of legality and therefore the rule of law" and were "unconstitutional".Gorven ruled that Jiba had lied under oath while justifying her decision to prosecute Booysen.Abrahams said the regional head of the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit, Marshall Mokgatle, had decided to drop the charges against Jiba on the basis of Section 78 of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, which states that "any person generally or specifically authorised to perform any function in terms of this act shall not in his or her personal capacity be liable for anything done in good faith".Institute for Accountability head Paul Hoffman said this amounted to Abrahams maintaining that Jiba had acted in good faith by lying.He said: "Someone needs to ask [Abrahams] how it is possible to lie 'in good faith'. The whole basis of any lie is a lack of good faith. It ought to have been left to the court to decide the matter," he said.The DA said the decision was questionable given "the slew of prima facie evidence against Jiba and her destructive track record at the NPA".DA justice spokesman Glynnis Breytenbach said: "This is confirmation that President Jacob Zuma dispensed of [former NPA head] Mxolisi Nxasana to install a man who has been given a mandate to protect Zuma and his long-standing ally in the NPA, Jiba."She said Abrahams had implicated himself by getting Jiba off the hook."Such poor decision-making so early in his tenure is truly disappointing," Breytenbach said...

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