Civil rights group AfriForum Private Prosecution Unit head Advocate Gerrie Nel on Thursday announced that AfriForum is taking legal action against Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Nomgcobo Jiba by bringing charges of fraud and perjury.

AfriForum said the case followed allegations made by former head of the Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal Major General Johan Booysen that Jiba had committed fraud and perjury during the process of charging him with racketeering.

Booysen took Jiba’s decision on review and Judge Trevor Gorven set the charges of racketeering aside in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban in February 2014. Gorven ruled that no rational explanation – not even loosely defined – existed to support Jiba’s decision.

AfriForum and Booysen argue that there is an irresistible inference that Booysen was targeted unlawfully by Jiba after he had started investigating the business operations of KwaZulu-Natal businessman Thoshan Panday, who has close ties to the Zuma family.
 
Nel says his office decided to assist Booysen in his application for a nolle prosequi certificate that will allow AfriForum to privately prosecute Jiba on behalf of Booysen.

“All citizens are subjected to the laws of the country. No one is exempted. It is a constitutional imperative for the prosecuting authority to adhere to this principle. Since the prosecuting authority appears to have abolished this principle when deciding on the prosecution of politically connected individuals, I have decided to invoke the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act to institute a private prosecution against Nomgcobo Jiba,” Booysen says.

CEO of AfriForum Kallie Kriel says it was in the interest of the principle of equality before the law that Jiba should be prosecuted.

“Just because Jiba finds herself in President [Jacob] Zuma’s inner circle doesn’t mean that she is above the law. AfriForum will help ensure that justice prevails through private prosecution,” he added.  

Nel explained that, should the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) issue a nolle prosequi certificate, AfriForum was obliged in terms of legislation to start the private prosecuting process within 90 days.

“The prosecution will then proceed just like any other criminal case before a judge in a court, except that as prosecutor I will not be in the service of the NPA,” Nel emphasised.
 
Former National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Mxolisi Nxasana, who at the time replaced Jiba as the National Director of Public Prosecutions, launched an investigation into Jiba’s actions against Booysen in light of Gorven’s ruling in 2014.

Despite the opinion of the two prosecutors assigned to the matter that a strong case existed against Jiba, Advocate Shaun Abrahams, who, in turn, replaced Nxasana, withdrew the case against her.

Jiba is also mentioned in Jacques Pauw’s new book The President's Keepers as one of the “keepers” in President Zuma’s inner circle.