Durban: Advocate Muzi Wilfred Mkhize has been tipped to take over the hot
seat as next National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), replacing advocate
Vusi Pikoli, who was axed by President Kgalema Motlanthe.
Legal and political sources said Mkhize's appointment will be announced next
month and he is already putting his team together.
Mkhize is a senior counsel at the Durban bar and has acted as a judge in both
KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
Not unlike the previous directors, Bulelani Ngcuka and Pikoli,
Mkhize also boasts strong ANC connections and was
once arrested by the apartheid government for being an ANC underground
operative.
He has shared chambers with advocate Kessie Naidu, SC, who
once represented Jacob Zuma's co-accused, French arms company Thint, and
advocate Jerome Brauns, who was on Zuma's legal team *1.
The hiring of the director is done by the president and is considered
a political appointment *2.
Asked if he knew about his pending appointment, Mkhize said yesterday: "I have
not heard anything about that."
A practising Durban lawyer, who preferred to remain anonymous, described Mkhize
as one of our "best lawyers".
"He has been around for quite some time and he is, arguably, one of the best
lawyers we have produced in the province. He might be overqualified for this
position as he is a senior counsel. But this job needs
someone who is a fit and proper person."
Mkhize's legal career has not been without controversy.
A complaint laid against him with the KwaZulu-Natal Society of Advocates in 2005
related to a disciplinary hearing he chaired. He was admonished and fined R10
000, the maximum fine under the society's rules.
The basis of the complaint was spelt out in court papers filed in the Natal
Provisional Division in which Mkhize was accused of
blatant bias*3 in his handling of an internal disciplinary hearing into
allegations of misconduct against the chief financial officer of the Ubuhlebezwe
Municipality (Ixopo) at the time.
Mkhize, who presided over the hearing, found Pradeepkumar Kowlessar guilty and
recommended that he be dismissed.
Soon after, Kowlessar said he discovered Mkhize had
previously drafted an opinion *4 for the municipality, stating what
charges the municipality should lay against him and stating that "on those
charges Mr Kowlessar will be found guilty and be dismissed
*5 from employment on account of misconduct".
Armed with these facts and a strong feeling that his hearing had been a
charade*6, Kowlessar approached the court asking
for a review of Mkhize's ruling. The municipality and Mkhize did not oppose the
application and Kowlessar was re-instated.
According to the minutes of the advocates' society hearing, Mkhize admitted
being careless*7 in agreeing to preside over the
disciplinary hearing.
With acknowledgements
to Tania Broughton, Sipho Khumalo and Cape Times.
*1Kessie Naidu also represented Zuma
in the early stages of the investigation against him, in particular he assisted
Zuma in compiling a response to the list of the NPA's formal questions.
The response was neither satisfactory nor complete.
*2This will indeed be a political appointment.
*3*6*7We can expect more blatant bias, charades and
carelessness.
*4*5In jurisprudence it is called a gun for hire.
This one should have been struck off the roll and not fined just R10 000.
The other parties in such a labour matter, i.e. either the employee or the
employer could easily be exposed to many hundreds of thousands of Rands of
damages and costs due to such unprofessional and indeed unlawful conduct.
This one has already proven himself to be not a fit and proper person.