The article "NPA accused of threatening employees acting on bench" published in The Star on 21 July 2009 refers.
The NPA finds the allegations contained in the article and attributed to Ms Nomonde Mngqibisa disturbing and misleading. The employee concerned, Ms Mngqibisa, was given full support by the NPA to participate in the aspirant judges programme. At all times during both her training as aspirant judge and for her period as acting judge, the former National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Advocate Pikoli, the current acting NDPP, Advocate Mpshe and the head of the Asset Forfeiture Unit, Mr Hofmeyr, conveyed this support to the then Minister Mabandla and the Chief Justice and indicated that they support her becoming a judge should she be selected for this.
Ms Mngqibisa is a Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions at the AFU. She applied for and was granted permission to attend the training for aspirant judges on full pay for six months and in return she undertook to refund the NPA these costs should she leave the NPA within a period of 30 months. Subsequently, this period of paid leave was extended to nearly nine months. This was despite the fact that this entailed long periods of absence from a busy AFU Regional office and caused a great deal of operational inconvenience for the NPA.
When she completed the course successfully, she approached the NPA with a request to be allowed to act as judge for a period of three months although this had not been part of the initial request. The NPA agreed to this, and this was later extended to six months. There were no further requests for extensions.
It was agreed with her and the Minister of Justice that she would be granted unpaid leave for this period as she would be paid the allowance payable to all acting judges which was higher than her NPA salary.
We wish to emphasise that at no stage during our engagements with her on these arrangements did we threaten her or exert any kind of pressure for her to choose between the NPA and the job of an acting judge. On the contrary, she was at all times encouraged to participate in the programme.
Enquiries:
Mthunzi Mhaga
NPA Spokesperson
Cell: 072 198 6863
Cell: 012 845 6443
E-mail: media@npa.gov.za or mcmhaga@npa.gov.za
Issued by: National Prosecuting Authority
21 July 2009
