Impeached former Western Cape judge president John Hlophe’s longtime counsel, Barnabas Xulu, has started 2026 with a legal bang. While facing his own Legal Practice Council disciplinary hearing into misconduct later this year, lawyer Barnabas Xulu this week launched an urgent application to interdict President Cyril Ramaphosa from appointing a new head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). The papers were filed with the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria on 29 December 2025.
Xulu – known for his “death by affidavit” approach to law – had earlier penned a 99-page objection delivered to the advisory panel appointed by Ramaphosa to review and recommend candidates to fill the top job vacancy that will be left with Shamila Batohi’s imminent departure. The one-time founder of the Jacob Zuma Foundation accused the panel of being “biased in favour” of former Investigating Directorate head, advocate Hermione Cronje. He charged that she had not been “made to answer publicly”, as was the case with other candidates who were interviewed.
He also claimed this demonstrated that not all candidates had been treated equally and that the process had therefore been unfair and needed to be set aside. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has since confirmed that it intends to file a notice to oppose Xulu’s application. According to spokesperson Terrence Manase, the filing did not meet the requirements for urgency and was premature, in any case.
Read Full Article on Daily Maverick
[paywall]
The president, Manase added, was still mulling over the report from the National Director of Public Prosecutions selection panel, which “considered all inputs received in respect of all candidates interviewed”. Xulu and Cronje’s paths crossed publicly in 2022 during Parliament’s Section 194 Impeachment Inquiry into former public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. That year, out of the blue, Xulu filed an application (which failed) in an attempt to force inquiry evidence leader, advocate Nazreen Bawa, to recuse herself from the proceedings. He accused Bawa, who remains the lead prosecutor in Xulu’s ongoing legal battle with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, now known as the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, of receiving “confidential information” from Cronje with regard to the “Lobster King” Arnold Bengis case.
[/paywall]
