Speculation is rife that President Cyril Ramaphosa could be preparing to replace Shaun Abrahams as the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP).
This in the light of Friday’s decision to withdraw an appeal into last year’s court judgment which set aside former president Jacob Zuma‘s appointment of Abrahams as National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head.
The court has ruled that Zuma was too conflicted to make such an appointment as he faces possible fraud and corruption charges relating to the procurement of Strategic Defence Package also known as the arms deal.
The court had also ruled that his deputy at the time Cyril Ramaphosa make the appointment.
Abrahams is still appealing the matter.
Political analyst Ralph Mathekga says the withdrawal signals that President Ramaphosa could be preparing to replace Abrahams.
“This is quiet consistent with what we have heard from Ramaphosa so far. He had indicated much earlier that he is ready to appoint the NDPP. Clearly this has been president Zuma’s route of challenging this decision and there is no reason for Ramaphosa to challenge this while it favoured him as the deputy president,” he adds.
“And now that he is the president, he is actually in a much better position to expedite that responsibility of appointing the new director of public prosecution. I do think that there is a clear intention within the ANC by the likes of Ramaphosa to try and move away from president Zuma’s attempt to litigate just about everything. At this point in time the ANC can do without those kind of frivolous litigations,” explains Mathekga.
