Mxolisi Nxasana, the current but beleaguered NDPP.
image: News24
After suddenly issuing a statement on Monday morning to the effect that the inquiry into the fitness of the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Mxolisi Nxasana to hold office, the Presidency went on to say that they were in the process of ‘engaging’ with Nxasana in order to find a solution to the problem.
Advocate Mxolisi Nxasana was appointed as the head of the National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) on the 30th of August, 2013, a position that was to be effected at the beginning of the following month. However, less than a year later, he was facing accusations from his employer that he had not received his security clearance, a requirement that had to have been met before he undertook the position. In addition, it also emerged that Nxasana had not revealed at the time he had been appointed to the position of the government’s top lawyer that he had been acquitted of murder way back in 1985. The other accusations against the current NDPP was that he had two separate convictions of assault, had faced criminal charges for acts of violence and also having been arrested and detained on criminal charges.
As a result of these revelations, President Zuma then instituted a commission to look into what was termed “Nxasana’s fitness and propriety to hold office”. In addition to investigating the above, Zuma instructed the commission, which was chaired by advocate Nazeer Cassim, to also investigate complaints of professional misconduct laid against Nxasana. The commission was due open its doors on Monday.
However, despite the fact that the room, public address system as well as lighting and seating had been arranged, according to the commission’s spokesperson, Andile Tshona, the commission’s chairperson received a call from the presidency late on Sunday night instructing him that the enquiry should not go ahead as the president wanted to engage with Nxasana in order to try and find a solution that would be of benefit the NPA, Nxasana and the country as a whole.
