EFF calls for Shaun Abrahams to be removed from roll of advocates

The EFF has written a letter to the General Council of the Bar as it seeks to remove the name of National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams from the roll of advocates.

The party made this demand on Monday‚ the day Abrahams reviewed and set aside the decision to charge Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and two others with fraud.

This decision vindicates the long-held view that the charges against the minister were trumped up

—  Hlengwa

The action by the EFF follows ANC heavyweight Mathews Phosa threatening two weeks ago to write to the General Council of the Bar to investigate Abrahams, saying "The NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] cannot be a lapdog of the Presidency as is currently the case."

When asked at the time if he thought Abrahams — like NPA advocates Nomgcobo Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi — was not "fit and proper" to be an advocate‚ Phosa said: "I am asking them to investigate like they did with Jiba and her colleagues."

Jiba and Mrwebi were recently struck from the roll after a court ruled their conduct in politically controversial cases made them unfit to be advocates.

On Monday, the EFF said it believed Abrahams violated his constitutional duties and was neither competent nor fit and proper to be an advocate of the High Court.

The party said Abrahams had an improper meeting at the headquarters of the ANC on October 10‚ a day before he announced the decision to charge Gordhan.

"It is unprecedented‚ inexplicable and unjustifiable that the head of the NPA would hold meetings with leaders of political parties and the executives of the state at their party political head office to discuss anything related to potential prosecutorial matters‚" the party said in a letter.

The party also accused Abrahams of an "improper meeting with an accused person".

"President Jacob Zuma is attempting to appeal against the re-institution of more than 780 criminal charges against him. Despite this‚ Mr Abrahams held a meeting with President Zuma on 10 October 2016 at the offices of the ANC.

"It is highly improper and irregular for a person who is appealing the reinstatement of charges against him by the NPA‚ to meet with the head thereof in a secret meeting."

The EFF said there were sufficient reasons for the General Council of the Bar to apply for the striking of Abrahams from the roll of advocates.

"The EFF reserves its rights and may pursue this matter in court should the General Council of the Bar decline this request‚" the EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee said in the letter.

Also in reaction to the dropping of charges against Gordhan, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) called for the immediate establishment of a commission of inquiry into Abrahams’s fitness to hold the position of NPA head.

"This decision vindicates the long-held view that the charges against the minister were trumped up‚ politically mandated and designed to lead to a malicious prosecution of the finance minister‚" IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa said.

"The credibility and independence of state institutions and law enforcement agencies are being damaged and eroded by the heavy hand of undue political interference to achieve personal wealth and questionable control over National Treasury at the expense of the national interest."

Hlengwa said while Abrahams was well within his rights and duties to review decisions to prosecute and subsequently withdraw charges‚ "the IFP maintains that Mr Abrahams aided and abetted the Hawks politically motivated witch-hunt against the minister of finance and by doing so cost our already struggling economy R60bn and compounded the poverty of the people when he agreed to charge the minister".

Meanwhile, Vuyani Ngalwana SC‚ an advocate who previously represented the police at the Marikana inquiry and also EFF leader Julius Malema against the taxman‚ has called on SA’s top prosecutor Shaun Abrahams to resign.

"If Shaun withdraws charges against finance minister‚ considering the heavyweights in his corner‚ think about what that says about our justice system‚" he tweeted.

"Resign. Can’t continue in these circumstances‚ surely!"

Ngalwana’s social media profile lists him as a practising advocate and a Member of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates. It states he is also a Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative and acts occasionally as a judge of the Labour Court and High Court of SA

TMG Digital