Former National Director of Public Prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana says axed NPA senior prosecutor Nomgcobo Jiba led a campaign to have him removed from his post.
Testifying at the Zondo Commission, probing claims of state capture, Nxasana said there was a “bad vibe” between himself, Jiba and Willie Hofmeyer prior to his official starting date of October 1, 2013.
Jiba was the acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) at the the time.
Nxasana says, while still preparing to take up his position at the prosecutions unit, there were cars driving around his home town of Umlazi in Durban, with unknown people asking about him.
He says he later learnt that Jiba was behind the surveillance.
Nxasana says the NPA’s head of Security and Risk Department, Terrence Joubert gave him an affidavit alluding to this.
“In the email there was an affidavit and that affidavit forms part of the bundle here, it said there was a campaign by advocate Jiba to dig dirt about me so that the whole purpose was to embarrass me so that the president can remove me as the head of the National Public Prosecutions.”
Earlier, Nxasana told the Zondo Commission that his August 2013 appointment to lead the NPA was surprising, shocking and yet humbling.
He says former President Jacob Zuma’s legal adviser, Michael Hulley visited him at his Durban office to tell him about the appointment.
Nxasana says he took up the challenge because he felt it was necessary for him to serve the country within the judicial system. He was, however, pushed out of office less than two years after he was appointed amid infighting in the NPA and claims that he had not been properly vetted for security.
The Constitutional Court in 2018 nonetheless found that his removal from office was an abuse of power. However, it ruled that the former NPA boss pay back R10.2 million of the R17.3 million golden handshake he received as an incentive for his unceremonious exit.
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