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The Advisory Panel tasked with interviewing candidates for NDPP job.
The Advisory Panel tasked with interviewing candidates vying for the top job of National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) has heard that there is a “skills catastrophe” in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
This was a sentiment shared by one of the candidates on day two of the interviews, former inaugural IDAC (Investigating Directorate) Head, Adv. Hermione Cronje.
Cronje was detailing some of the cracks or flaws she identified upon her return in 2019, which also contributed to her second departure from the institution in 2022.
Advocate Cronje, who was the inaugural head of IDAC, a unit designed to deal with complex crime, has, in a candid interview, discussed the challenges of a skills deficit in the NPA and the struggles to recruit outside of the system.
While the Advisory Panel questioned whether this categorisation was not an exaggeration, Cronje remained firm, stating that this was not a means to cast aspersions on capable prosecutors.
Former IDAC Head, Adv. Hermione Cronje says, “They will continue to be frustrated with state capture prosecutions because I am not convinced that we have the skills. There are a lot of other issues, it’s not just skills, but the skills to put together the kind of charge sheets, the kind of indictments that are needed, I don’t know that we have in the NPA.”
Cronje further clarifies that she previously left the NPA on good terms with the current NDPP, Adv. Shamila Batohi, despite reports suggesting otherwise.
Cronje adds, “One of the articles written about my departure was that it was a catfight and I was deeply offended by that. Because it trivialised what I thought were important issues, and I wrote to the journalist and said (if it was a man), would you characterise a disagreement between two male colleagues in this way refusing to actually deal with the substance of the issues raised and micharacterise it as two women could not get along, but he said he did not mean it that way.”
Cronje was followed by Advocate Menzi Simelane, who previously held the position and the Constitutional Court invalidated this appointment in a 2012 judgment after it found that former President Jacob Zuma failed to consider credibility concerns made in the Ginwala Inquiry Report.
Chairperson of Public Service Commission Prof. Somadoda Fikeni says, “Here are observations made in the report about you having withheld some documents, not cooperating, and not being a reliable witness. Those are very specific. Whatever technical term we can use, those were made there, and you would have said, ‘Let me challenge that particular aspect in the report,’ because it impugns your own integrity. Would that not be the case?”
Former NDPP Advocate Menzi Simelane says, “You are wrong on a number of fronts, Professor Fikeni. There are no technicalities that were getting into, and I resist your temptation to want to avoid the issue, because I want to make these issues that Dr. Ginwala raised an issue for you, as this panel to think about. So I’m not going to accept your characterization of the issues I want to raise as technical issues.”
Advocate Xolisile Khanyile, a third candidate, who boasts a career that spans over 20 years and includes combating financial crimes, also faced tough questions over CV discrepancies.
