NPA withdraws demotion notices

A Mail & Guardian report says the two have been reprieved after being informed by National Director of Public Prosecutions Menzi Simelane that they would be moved to the Magistrate's Courts. Legal sources told the paper Baloyi might have been targeted because he worked on the Zuma corruption case until the charges were dropped last year. Meintjes - an expert on children's and women's rights - is vice-president of the association. The IAP wrote to Zuma, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe and Simelane to express its alarm at the proposed 'reassignment' of senior prosecutors. Although the restructuring has now been put on hold following interventions by Zuma and Radebe, the prosecutors have received no written notification that redeployment plans have been dropped. Manie de Clercq, of the Public Servants' Association, said the union had entered into talks with the NPA over Meintjes and Baloyi last week. 'We agreed that the reassignment instruction regarding Meintjes and Baloyi is withdrawn until we go back to the bargaining chamber to discuss the NPA's restructuring plans,' said De Clercq. Full Mail & Guardian report

However, the Society of State Advocates of SA has come out in support of Simelane's restructuring. Ssasa chairperson, Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka, is quoted in The Sunday Independent as saying the body supported the need for transformation in the NPA. Gcaleka was elected Ssasa's first black chairperson at the body's 28th annual general meeting this month. Simelane had briefed the meeting on the restructuring and transformation processes in the prosecuting authority. 'The National Director explained the whole process to us. We know that transformation is necessary and that is something that is long overdue,' she said. Gcaleka said transformation of the NPA was a 'bureaucratic process' and Justice Minister Jeff Radebe would make the final decision on change. No one had raised concerns about the proposed closure of the specialised commercial crimes, asset forfeiture and other units with Simelane, she said. 'It is not a closure per se,' she said. 'It's more a streamlining of reporting to ensure that the director of prosecutions in a region also becomes the director of prosecutions for the units.' Gcaleka said there had been a misunderstanding about the closure of units and demotion of certain prosecutors. 'No one has been demoted and no one is going to be demoted,' she said. Full report in The Sunday Independent (subscription needed)