JOHANNESBURG – DA member of parliament and former prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach says she still doesn’t know exactly what charges she will face when she appears in court on Monday.
The National Prosecuting Authority announced on Friday that she and her lawyer, Gerhard Wagenaar, had been charged with defeating the ends of justice.
The state laid the charge against her in 2012, claiming Breytenbach had tampered with evidence against her, contained on her laptop.
She was cleared of that charge during her NPA disciplinary inquiry.
Luyuvo Mfaku, NPA spokesperson says, “This emanates from a situation in 2012 in which our Integrity Management Unit investigated Glynnis Breytenbach on issues relating to acts of misconduct.”
“Then she refused to hand over an official laptop which the investigation team believes that it contained information that was relevant to their investigation. She subsequently wiped out or shredded all the information…official and private that was contained in the laptop.”
Mfaku says enough evidence has been gathered against the former prosecutor.
“After the disciplinary processes was concluded and she was cleared of the charges, the prosecution felt that there must be investigations.”
Meanwhile, the DA says it won’t be suspending Breytenbach in the wake of the new charges, and accuses the NPA of having a political agenda.
It is indeed instructive that the charges against Adv Breytenbach have been laid at the same time as our court action against Ms Jiba. The DA is in the midst of a review application requesting the Western Cape High Court to set aside President Zuma’s decision not to suspend and order a Commission of Inquiry into the sitting deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Nomgcobo Jiba, despite many calls to do so by the former NDPP, Mxolisi Nxasana.
The charges for which Adv Breytenbach stands accused were thoroughly traversed in disciplinary hearings against her and all resulted in her acquittal.
Now, years after the fact, the NPA wants to revive matters that have already been dealt with. This is on the back of President’s Zuma’s capitulation in the Nkandla Constitutional Court matter on Tuesday this week and the al-Bashir saga before the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on friday.
For too long the President and the ANC in government have been knocking on the doors of the Judiciary in an effort to bend the courts to their undue political whims to no avail from the Judiciary.
The ANC and the NPA know that the DA has a strong case against Jiba and knowing the Judiciary’s commitment to the Rule of Law will be unfettered by undue political considerations; the NPA is panicking in a thinly veiled move to distract the nation from an NPA boss who is wholly unfit to hold office.
The DA regards the charges against Adv Breytenbach as trumped up. We also regard her as innocent until proven guilty and stand by her.
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