Cape Town - Menzi Simelane's appointment as national director of
prosecutions shows an "utter
disregard for the Constitution and the law",
according to constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos.
"This is the darkest and most scandalous
day yet in the short life of President [Jacob] Zuma’s tenure,"
he said on Thursday in his blog Constitutionally Speaking.
De Vos, who holds a chair in constitutional governance at the University of Cape
Town, said the National Prosecuting Authority Act laid down that the director
had to be a "fit and proper person, with due regard to his or her experience,
conscientiousness and integrity".
"President Zuma acted unlawfully because Simelane clearly does not meet the
requirements for the job," he said.
He said the Ginwala inquiry had found that in his former post of justice
director general, Simelane drafted a letter for his minister on the case for
former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi that was in Ginwala's words
"tantamount to executive interference *1
with the prosecutorial independence of the NPA".
De Vos said Simelane’s view of the NPA was that it should take instructions from
the minister of justice and the president, even in making decisions on
individual cases.
Simelane's appointment was announced by the presidency on Wednesday, and drew a
howl of protest from opposition parties.
He is to take over from acting director Mokotedi Mpshe, who will return to his
position of deputy national director.