Ramaphosa suspends Andrew Chauke, alleged State Capture enabler and South Gauteng prosecutions head

On Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the decision in terms of section 14(3) read with 12(6)(a) of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act had been taken pending an inquiry into Andrew Chauke’s fitness to hold office.

Chauke has been at the centre of allegations over many years that he has acted as a gatekeeper and had weaponised the NPA to protect the politically powerful and corrupt.

Read more: Peak State Capture prosecutor Andrew Chauke faces suspension and inquiry into fitness to hold office

State Capture

As Ra’eesa Pather of Open Secrets noted in 2o22 as the DPP in Joburg, Chauke had made decisions on prosecutions that are heard in the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg.

“These included decisions on State Capture cases in the South Gauteng region, which have been assigned to Chauke’s office. Many State Capture cases have seen little progress from law enforcement agencies, including the cases of corruption at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa),” she noted.

Chauke has occupied the job since 2011 and was appointed by the president (Jacob Zuma at the time), who has the power to remove him, which is what Ramaphosa has done.

Karima Brown 

In December 2020, Chauke took the now late veteran journalist Karima Brown to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) after she implicated him in various instances of malfeasance during an episode of her current affairs series The Fix, broadcast on eNCA at the time.

On 11 October that year, Chauke complained that Brown had made “unfounded allegations and disparaging remarks” about him. Brown had referred to Chauke as “being part of the Zuma cabal” and “a corrupt element within the NPA”.

Brown had also alleged that Chauke had targeted former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks Head Johan Booysen and that he had also failed to institute criminal proceedings against former MEC for Health in Gauteng Brian Hlongwa.

Brown went further to allege that Chauke had in fact declined to prosecute disgraced former Crime Intelligence head Richard Mdluli and had also managed Advocates Sello Maema and Raymond Mathenjwa, who were dealing with the fake Johan Booysen manhunt.

A BCCSA tribunal found that Chauke’s refusal to offer a reply to Brown’s statement had resulted in his own misfortune.

The tribunal also found that Chauke’s right to privacy and dignity, being that of a public figure, was overridden by a legitimate public interest. No contravention of the code was found. 

Erosion of the NPA

Open Secrets also highlighted in 2022, the erosion of the NPA in the Zuma era and how the prosecution of Booysen led to a decline in public trust in the NPA.

The then acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Nomgcobo Jiba had authorised racketeering and murder charges against Booysen and several other police officers in 2012. 

At the time, Booysen had been investigating a corruption case that had alleged links to Jacob Zuma’s son Edward. 

On Monday, the Office of the Presidency noted that it believed that Chauke’s “continued tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions – while facing serious accusations – would negatively affect the reputation of the National Prosecuting Authority as a whole”. DM