IDAC head Andrea Johnson resigns

Advocate Andrea Johnson requested to be released from office immediately, asking that her contractual three-month notice period be waived. Picture: Timothy Bernard / ANA Studio Advocate Andrea Johnson has resigned as head of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC), saying sustained attacks against her and the controversy surrounding her leadership have become a reputational risk to both the anti-corruption unit and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). In a resignation letter addressed to National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Andy Mothibi and President Cyril Ramaphosa, Johnson requested to be released from office immediately, asking that her contractual three-month notice period be waived.

“This is a difficult request to make given the absolute love and commitment I have had for the position of being the Investigating Director of IDAC,” she wrote. Johnson said the past five months had been particularly challenging and that attacks on both her personally and in her official capacity had been “unprecedented”. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago confirmed in a message last night that the letter had reached Mothibi.

“The NDPP has received the letter and he is processing.” In the letter, Johnson said much of the criticism stemmed from cases IDAC had pursued involving officials in the South African Police Service’s Crime Intelligence division. “The attacks, in all its forms, has brought an extreme amount of negative attention not just to me, but to IDAC and the NPA,” she wrote.