Justice & constitutional development minister Mmamoloko Kubayi says the DA has threatened to interdict the interview process for the national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) role, which began on Wednesday.
Kubayi addressed the media before the panel began interviewing candidates in the race to take over from National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Shamila Batohi, saying the panel received a letter from the DA’s attorneys asking for the process to be stopped.
“We have received a letter with the intention to interdict the process. They are threatening to go to court urgently. We believe this is self-inflicted urgency; there are no merits to it because we have not shortlisted [candidates]. The lawyers will respond to the attorneys and the DA,” she said.
Kubayi said the DA did not submit comments to the panel when the opportunity was opened to the public to address grievances.
“We have instructed our attorneys to respond to the letter. We do feel that there is no need to halt the process as a panel. The letter is misguided.”
Candidates taking the hot seat on Wednesday will be Nicolette Bell, Adrian Mopp and Independent Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) head Andrea Johnson.
Kubayi said that in its letter, the DA raised concerns about the shortlisting of candidates.
She said there was no shortlisting done by the panel but there was screening of applicants to pick the ones who qualified, and there were only six candidates with the management experience needed to head the NPA, which has a national footprint.
The concerns about the process come as Menzi Simelane, among the six candidates, faces a court application by the Johannesburg Society of Advocates, seeking his disbarment.
Simalane’s fitness to contest for the NDPP position has been questioned by some legal bodies. He has opposed the application by the Johannesburg Society of Advocates (JSA), which wants to stop him practising as a legal practitioner.
The JSA applied to the high court in Johannesburg in October for Simelane to be struck from the roll of legal practitioners, or alternatively, for him to be suspended from practising as an advocate for three years and pay a R500,000 fine.
The legal action is based on a JSA panel finding eight years ago that deemed him unfit and improper to remain an advocate of the high court, mainly based on his involvement in the suspension of former NDPP advocate Vusi Pikoli in 2007.
Simelane, in his answering affidavit, challenged the JSA, criticising why it took eight years to bring the application in the High Court if it really believed his conduct was a risk to the public.
He contends the JSA case and the allegations levelled against him do not implicate his conduct as a practising advocate but as a public servant in the service of the state.
Simelane will be interviewed on Thursday by the panel consisting of Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke, Public Service Commission chair Somadoda Fikeni, Black Lawyers Association president Nkosana Mvundlela, South African Human Rights Commission chair Andrew Christoffel Nissen, and Nthabiseng Sepanya-Mogale, chair of the Commission for Gender Equality.
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