Ferreira accuses Mrwebi, Jiba of squashing high profile cases

The National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) senior advocate Jan Ferreira has told the Mokgoro Enquiry  sitting in Pretoria of a series of incidents which he deemed as interference on his work and that of colleagues by their superiors. He referred to incidents dating back from 2012 among others.

Ferreira has accused senior advocate Lawrence Mrwebi and Nomgcobo Jiba of squashing some of the high profile cases he and colleagues were probing.

Some of the cases included that of former Crime Intelligence Head, Richard Mdluli. Mdluli was probed for fraud among others.

The enquiry is probing fitness to hold office against Mrwebi and Jiba.

Ferreira testified that Mrwebi frequently took unlawful prosecutorial decisions despite his position not mandated to do that.

Constitutional Law expert Phephelaphi Dube, says the Mokgoro Enquiry is yet to learn of the real extent of politicization at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

Dube says, “I think we really don’t know the true extent of what’s been happening at the NPA over the last few years. I think so far the commission has really been hacking over the process. So the commission itself is yet to come to grips with what really has taken place. It certainly suggests a very strong evidence of politicization of the NPA, but that on its own is probably not enough, just given the number of years that the former president was in power. I think what we are seeing is only just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.”

In 2015, Ferreira drafted a legal opinion which found that Jiba committed perjury when she said under oath that she considered all available evidence when authorizing the racketeering charges against former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss, Johan Booysen. However, that was overturned by former prosecutions boss Shaun Abrahams.