As the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is in the news again and South Africa is asking questions about its leader I am reminded of this column I wrote in 2011 about one senior appointment to the organisation then. After reading it think of our choice of people who are supposed to play leading roles in the NPA and other important institutions of our country:
Judge Willem Heath has been re-appointed to head the Special Investigations Unit (SIU). He is the founding head of the unit under President Mandela who stepped down after the Constitutional Court ruled that a sitting judge can not head such a unit. Heath resigned as a judge after President Mbeki refused to grant him early retirement and eventually stepped down as the head of the SIU.
President Zuma has brought Judge Heath back. There was a huge outcry when President Mbeki let him go. One would expect that there would be ululations now that he has been brought back. Alas, there is no such. There is outcry from the same quarters that complained when he was allowed to leave. They argued then that he was a man of integrity and they complain now that he lacks the same.
I did not express much emotion when he left the position and I also did not have much to say when the announcement of his return was made. That was until I read an interview of Heath in the City Press.
I could not help feeling that Heath brings in factional Party politics into his work. He is making comparisons between the current ANC leadership and the previous one. Heath claims that the post-Polokwane leadership is far better than the previous one whilst bitterly complaining about his treatment by the then ANC leadership as presided on by former President Thabo Mbeki. He claims Mbeki made him a “pauper” and caused him to start “from scratch” in life. I am convinced that he could have finished the interview without referring to ANC politics. Reading the interview one can not miss the bitterness that oozes from the former judge. He sounds like someone who is on a mission for revenge. In the entire interview Heath comes up as a factionalist who wants to protect everything about the ANC President and have a grudge against those who might disagree with him. It is not his place as a head of the Special Investigations Unit. He can just join an ANC branch and pursue that line of thinking within it. Of all state employees who were accused of being factional and used their position to pursue such interests none has ever verbalized it like Willem Heath did. Does our country needs this from someone who is supposed to be apolitical and impartial?
The SIU head’s masterpiece was when he was responding to a question about why only Schabir Shaik and Tony Yengeni were prosecuted for the arms deal. His response was that “ They were sacrificed. It was easy to sacrifice them. And then, of course, Mbeki initiated Zuma’s prosecution – not only as far as the corruption charges were concerned, but also on the rape case.” My eyes went wide.
Our Heath was asked whether he had proof for this and responded that Mbeki “dictated to the NPA what decisions they had to take. I can’t disclose the evidence to you, but generally there was no doubt he had a strong say in those decisions; yet the NPA was supposed to be completely independent.”
The journalist probed further and asked whether the rape case was a set up. The man who will lead the Special Investigations Unit responded that it was indeed a set up.
What the above comments actually do is to allege that a State President broke the law whilst in office. They also allege that the National Prosecuting Authority has not acted without fear or favour or prejudice as envisaged in the preamble of the legislation that governs it (Act 32 of 1998). I am in agreement with the Centre for Constitutional Rights that the NPA “bears the sole responsibility for determining who will, and who will not be, prosecuted”. That is, at least, according to legislation. Is a senior member of the NPA not supposed to ensure that something is done about his/her knowledge of violations of the law? Should he run to the media and make many reckless allegations that have not been investigated and proven by any court of law?
As the ANC is going to its Mangaung Congress in 2012 it is expected that allegations of the improper use of State organs will be rife and unfortunately the new head of the SIU is not reassuring on this aspect.
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