A suspended prosecutor who collaborated with the police in their war against the Scorpions wants Justice Minister Jeff Radebe to save her job.

Advocate Nomgcobo Jiba was suspended with pay by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in November 2007 for helping the SAPS to secure an arrest warrant against her colleague, advocate Gerrie Nel, the Scorpions head in Gauteng.

Jiba had unsuccessfully approached the Labour Court to have her disciplinary hearing set aside.

The Mail & Guardian reported in February that Gauteng deputy provincial police commissioner Richard Mduli had filed an extraordinary affidavit in support of Jiba's application, in which he revealed that the police had bugged former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy during their investigation into Nel.

Nel was the prosecutor in the case against national police commissioner Jackie Selebi, and was arrested in a blaze of publicity *1 in January 2008, although charges against him were later withdrawn.

In an interview with the Saturday Star this week, Radebe said he would meet the NPA's top brass soon, as well as other levels of management.

He acknowledged that morale could be low, given "some turbulence *2" arising from the Scorpions' disbandment and the establishment of the new Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation.

There were outstanding labour issues involving disciplinary matters that had been brought to his attention.

"A prosecutor gets caught in the fight between the police and prosecutors in the NPA. They write to you and say: 'Mr Minister, I am being victimised because I collaborated with the police investigation of X, Y, Z'."

Radebe confirmed he was referring to Jiba, who had asked him to intervene in her dispute.

He said he was in the process of studying the issue, "so that I understand before I take a decision".

NPA spokesperson Bulelwa Makeke said it was common cause that Jiba's case had been thrown out of the Labour Court.

This opened the way for the NPA to institute its internal disciplinary processes to finalise the matter as soon as possible.

On Jiba's petitioning of Radebe, she said: "The minister will be fully briefed on the facts and on the NPA's position in this matter."

Radebe confirmed that he had received an oral report from acting prosecutions boss Mokotedi Mpshe about the alleged abuse of process by McCarthy in the prosecution of President Jacob Zuma.

However, he had yet to receive the full report *3 referred to in Mpshe's statement when he announced in April that charges would be dropped against Zuma.

Only once he received this would he be in a position to decide whether a judge should be appointed, as mooted by Mpshe *4.

Mpshe said in April the NPA believed that a "full and proper investigation" *5 was necessary to determine whether any further action should be taken against members of the NPA - past and present - for their role in the alleged abuse.

On whether he had set any timeframes *6 for Mpshe's full report, Radebe said he would raise the issue at their next meeting.

Radebe said he was not aware of whether the inspector-general of intelligence had finalised his probe into the legality of the so-called spy tapes *7, as his report would be submitted to Zuma and State Security Minister Siyabonga Cele.

On whether the NPA would have a permanent boss soon, Radebe said the appointment of the national director of public prosecutions was the prerogative of the president.

He could not say whether the appointment would be made regardless of axed prosecutions boss Vusi Pikoli's court case against his dismissal.

• This article was originally published on page 7 of Saturday Star on June 13, 2009