ANC Heavyweight and former Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa has threatened to open criminal charges against top officials at the National Prosecuting Authority's Gauteng office including its head Andrew Chauke. He claims that they are protecting a suspect in a case he opened. The former ANC Treasurer General has written a letter to Chauke demanding answers on the sudden cancellation of a warrant of arrest against a suspect in a matter in which the ANC politician was involved.
ACTS OF CRIMINALITY
In the letter dated 1 September 2022, seen by Zimoja, and sent to Chauke via email, Phosa accused the NPA of corruption, abuse of power, fraud and defeating the ends of justice. "It is with great disappointment that the writer again witnessed severe acts of criminality, corruption, fraud and support for wrongdoing which is taking place within your office. The following acts of defeating the ends of justice criminal, corruption, and blatantly fraudulent activities took place in the Palm RIdge court under your leadership on 1 September 2022 under case number.... We demand that such criminal activities are stopped, reversed and rectified by your office immediately. We will not accept any excuses as we did the first time round and we demand nothing less than swift action, " reads Phosa's letter.
R14 MILLION AT THE HEART OF THIS
Zimoja understands that the matter at the heart of Phosa's letter of complaint to the NPA relates to an amount of R14 million which was allegedly stolen and paid to a businessman Lunga Kunene, from a company in which Phosa is a shareholder. The money was allegedly for coal mining rights linked to a R450 million mining deal in KwaZulu Natal. Phosa had initially registered a complaint with Chauke claiming that one of the NPA prosecutors was giving Kunene VIP treatment instead of being treated like all suspects involved in a criminal case. His complaint was later dismissed by Chauke, who found that the allegations had no merit and there was no evidence suggesting that Kunene was receiving special treatment from prosecutors at the commercial court, and that the businessman was improperly arrested leading to him being granted a R30 000 bail, something which Phosa said he was against.
CANCELLED WARRANT
In his letter of complaint, Phosa said a warrant of arrest was issued against Kunene on 19 August 2022, and he evaded arrest and breached the terms of his bail. "He was on the run from police. His details were circulated as a wanted person, but he could not be found. He was not at the address which he supplied to the police and he never cooperated with the police at all. On 1 September 2022, it came to my attention after speaking to the Investigating office at 11h00, he circulated the accused and he could not find the accused. Strangely at 11h30 the warrant still being with the Investigating Officer, I received news from the prosecutor, who himself was shocked that the warrant was cancelled, behind the prosecutor's back, while he was in that court dealing with another matter, " said Phosa in his letter.
DOING FAVOURS
Phosa said the prosecution was doing favours for Kunene and they leaked information about his impending arrest to him, and he said there was no way he would have known that the police were on his tail. He said the charge sheet was also given to the accused by members of Chauke's office without the prosecutor's knowledge. "Another prosecutor from your office, as a favour to the accused, again without the prosecutor working on the matter knowing, unlawfully enrolled the matter in court and appointed himself to the matter," said Phosa. Phosa further said that at the time the matter was enrolled again, the docket was still with the main prosecutor assigned to the case, and the new prosecutor, whom he called an imposter, hid it from his colleague and the investigating officer, an act which he said amounts to defeating the ends of justice, fraud, and blatant misrepresentation to the court itself, as a favour to the accused. "The warrant was fraudulently cancelled before its execution with the assistance of your office to the accused, as your office constantly has an interest to set free this accused in a corrupt manner," charged Phosa. He said the actions of the NPA must be reversed otherwise he was going to unleash the Hawks on the prosecuting body.
DEFENDING THE DECISION
In their response dated 6 September 2022, the NPA, through its Deputy Director of Public Prosecution at the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit, Advocate S Naidoo defended their decision to cancel a warrant of arrest against Kunene stating that the decision was arrived at after they realised that it would be futile because the accused had already appeared in court on September 1, and the Magistrate had already postponed the matter to September 12 2022. The decision by the magistrate for postponement, according to Naidoo, was taken so that the revocation of Kunene's bail can be addressed.
"Aggrieved as you may have been with the way the events have panned out, in court on the 1st of September 2022 (Which I will deal with hereunder), the fact is the attendance of the accused has been secured for the revocation application to take place for with," reads the response. Naidoo further told Phosa that he was currently attending to some of the issues he raises in his letter complaint, highlighting that he has already started interviewing all the prosecutors and the court staff involved in the matter on the day in question. However Naidoo also cautioned Phosa indicating that the matter was being handled through an internal process and he also assured the politician that it would be adequately dealt with by his office.
