South Africa

KZN PROSECUTIONS

Violence-wracked KwaZulu-Natal gets permanent DPP

Violence-wracked KwaZulu-Natal gets permanent DPP
Elaine Zungu’s appointment as permanent Director of Public Prosecutions in KwaZulu-Natal has been described by those who have dealt with her as ‘an excellent choice’. (Image: jessica45 from Pixabay)

The province has been plagued by ongoing political assassinations of mostly ANC members in a deadly tussle for power and control of resources, and the director of public prosecutions will have her work cut out for her.

Advocate Elaine Zungu, acting director of public prosecutions (DPP) in KZN since May 2019, will take up a permanent position in the corruption-ridden and violence-torn province from 1 November.

Zungu’s permanent appointment, announced by President Cyril Ramphosa on 30 October 2019, has been described by those who have dealt with her as “an excellent choice”.

The Presidency said the appointment of Zungu was made “towards the fulfilment of the president’s commitment to strengthen the criminal justice system as part of the national priority of the fight against crime and corruption”.

One of the high-profile political cases Zungu’s office will deal with is the R208- million fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering case facing former ANC eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede and 11 others.

In August, one of the lead investigators in the Gumede matter survived an attempted assassination in Johannesburg.

The province, too, has been plagued by ongoing political assassinations of mostly ANC members in a deadly tussle for power and control of resources. The killings include members of the police and witnesses, including Martin Sithole, former treasurer of the ANC’s eMalahleni region who would have been a witness in the murder trial of Newcastle ANC mayor Ntuthuko Mahlaba.

Mahlaba has been accused of the 2016 murder of ANCYL leader Wandile Ngubeni. Sithole was shot 28 times in May 2019.

In an investigation into political violence in KZN for Groundup, Christopher Clarke cited research by independent crime researcher David Bruce, who found that a staggering 450 politically-motivated murders had taken place in KwaZulu-Natal between 1994 and the end of 2013, with only about 10% of these being prosecuted.

For more than a decade, former KZN DPP Moipone Noko used the office to protect a long list of dodgy politicians, cops and politically-connected businesspeople.

The Zondo commission of inquiry heard damning evidence of how Noko dropped charges against Zuma family-linked businessman Thoshan Panday implicated in a R60-million tender fraud related to the 2010 Fifa World Cup, as well as ANC heavyweights Mike Mabuyakhulu and Peggy Nkonyeni, in the R144-million “Amigos” scandal in 2012.

It was also Noko who had recommended the prosecution of former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Johan Booysen and members of the Cato Manor Unit on bogus charges of racketeering.

Noko was also responsible for dropping charges against Panday’s SAPS insider, Colonel Navin Madhoe, who had later attempted to offer a R1-million bribe to Booysen to make Panday’s case disappear. Madhoe was caught on camera in a police sting. Noko was transferred as the DPP of the North West in May.

The Presidency on Wednesday said it was satisfied, within the context of the National Prosecuting Authority Act, that Zungu was “a fit and proper person, with due regard to her experience, conscientiousness and integrity, to be entrusted with the responsibilities of the office concerned”. DM

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