Rights groups go for blood

10 November 2016 - 08:58 By GRAEME HOSKEN

The only remaining way to protect South Africa from a constitutional crisis is a legal challenge by civil society to force President Jacob Zuma to take action against National Prosecuting Authority boss Shaun Abrahams. That is the view of constitutional rights organisations and lawyers after The Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law asked the Pretoria High Court to have Zuma suspend Abrahams and appoint a judicial commission of inquiry into his fitness to hold office.The application also calls for the suspension of the North Gauteng director of public prosecutions, Sibongile Mzinyathi, and of the head of the NPA's priority crimes investigation unit, Torie Pretorius.The application is a response to the NPA's decision to bring and then withdraw charges of fraud and theft against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan for his approval of the early retirement of former SARS deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay, and his rehiring as a consultant.In court papers, Helen Suzman Foundation director Francis Antonie said: "The news [of Gordhan's charging] saw serious questions posed about the independence of the NPA and the national director of public prosecutions, the workings of the executive being affected and the country being rocked by political uncertainty."At the core of the matter is incompetence of a magnitude so stupefying as to beggar belief ."He said the foundation wanted the court to declare unlawful Zuma's failure to institute an inquiry into Abrahams's conduct. Antonie said Zuma failed in his constitutional duty to protect the NPA's independence.Centre for Constitutional Rights director Phephelaphi Dube said the granting of the application would encroach on the president's powers as the NPA Act specified that only the president may suspend the national director."[But] in this instance, the president's failure [to suspend Abrahams pending an inquiry into his fitness to hold office] is irrational, given the clear abuse of the NPA's powers in the Gordhan matter and the allegations of political influence following Abrahams's visit to and meeting with the justice minister and Zuma at Luthuli House."DA MP Hendrik Smit has called for the constitution to be changed so that future heads of the NPA are appointed through a transparent parliamentary process. - Additional reporting by Babalo Ndenze..

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