More to Breytenbach suspension than meets the eye - judge

This, notes a report in The Times, is according to Judge Hamilton Cele, who dismissed Breytenbach's application for her suspension to be overturned in the Johannesburg Labour Court yesterday. Cele said the court did not have jurisdiction in the matter but told the NPA that Breytenbach would be a 'vital official' in the investigation into why disciplinary action against former police Crime Intelligence boss Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli was dropped. He said that if she were found guilty by the NPA and dismissed, the investigation of Mdluli - ordered by the North Gauteng High Court on an application by the NGO Freedom Under Law - would be compromised. He said Breytenbach's contention that she was suspended because of her insistence on prosecuting Mdluli might have merit. And he warned the NPA that it should treat its legal right to hold disciplinary hearings against Breytenbach 'with very great circumspection'. He said Breytenbach's suspension was 'not as simple as the NPA would have the court believe'. Though the NPA insists that she was dismissed because she employed an advocate to apply pressure on a state witness in the ICT-Kumba mining rights dispute, Breytenbach believes it was because she refused to stop pursuing criminal charges against Mdluli, who has been accused of murder and of plundering a secret police slush fund - charges he denies. Full report in The Times

Cele dismissed the application because Breytenbach 'had not shown the existence of any extraordinary or compelling urgent circumstances' to justify the application being heard in the Labour Court. He said the matter belonged in the CCMA or the bargaining council. A City Press report notes Breytenbach, the senior prosecutor responsible for the case in which Mdluli is accused of allegedly abusing Crime Intelligence 'slush funds', was suspended as regional head of the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit on 30 April. Cele said yesterday: 'From the onset, it needs to be observed that an employer has a general right to discipline its employees. It will only be in exceptional circumstances that this court will intervene in uncompleted disciplinary matters.' Full City Press report

NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said after the hearing that Breytenbach was still regarded as an employee, notes a Mail & Guardian Online report. 'We have a disciplinary hearing - which is pending - that will deal with all issues. The hearing might exonerate her, or find her guilty, but we have to allow that process to unfold,' he said. '... for now, she remains an employee of the NPA. I am not aware of any animosity (between Breytenbach and the NPA).' He could not say whether the hearing would be open to the media, but said there would be more clarity after Media24's application for access was heard by North Gauteng High Court. Breytenbach's disciplinary hearing was expected to be held on 23 July. It emerged on 4 July that media would not be allowed on the NPA's premises on the day of the hearing. The NPA previously said that a ruling by the former chairperson of the hearing, advocate Barry Madolo, to allow the media to attend was 'contradictory, patently wrong, unenforceable and irrational.' Full Mail & Guardian Online report