Prosecutors behind failed Gordhan fraud charges won’t be suspended
National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams will not be suspended, president Jacob Zuma has declared, and neither will any of the prosecutors involved with the failed bid to prosecute finance minister Pravin Gordhan on trumped up fraud charges.
News24 reports that Zuma had considered the matter, and that concerns of the Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law regarding the prosecutors’ conduct was not enough to convince him that there were ulterior motives involved.
Following an embarrassing retraction of an investigation into Gordhan in 2016, civil groups called on Zuma to suspend the prosecutors involved for spearheading the flimsy case, which would have had disastrous consequences for the South African economy.
Zuma subsequently asked the prosecutors to submit statements as to why they should not be suspended.
This was the statement from the Presidency:
“Having considered the submissions received from the three prosecutors and concerns raised by the Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law regarding their conduct – in as far as it relates to the decision to charge and review the charges against Minister Pravin Gordhan, Mr Ivan Pillay and Mr Oupa Magushula – the President could not find substantiation for the claim that Adv Abrahams, Adv Mzinyathi and Dr Pretorius’s conducts were actuated by ulterior motive or any other improper motive which would give rise to a charge of misconduct or that they are no longer fit and proper to hold office.”
“Taking the aforementioned into consideration the President decided not to provisionally suspend Adv. Abrahams, Adv Mzinyathi and Dr Pretorius and hold an enquiry into their fitness to hold office as envisaged in section 12(6) read with 14(3) of the Act.”
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