Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) headAndrea Johnson’s involvement in her husband, Junaid’s, hiring process to the disbanded Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) 18 years ago came back to haunt her on Wednesday, in her interview for the position of national director of public prosecutions (NDPP). A seven-member panel, chaired by justice and constitutional development minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, is interviewing six candidates to replace NPA head Shamila Batohi, whose term is due to conclude in January. The interviews take place as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) faces criticism for its performance on state capture prosecutions.
Panelist member advocate Machini Motloung, representative of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, told her most of the concerns flagged discomfort with her remarks before parliament about the hiring process of her husband to the Scorpions in 2007. Johnson told parliament she had been part of a panel that recommended her husband be hired, but she had taken precautionary measures including declaring they were married, not interviewing or scoring her husband and not taking part in deliberations regarding her husband’s candidature. Johnson said she followed a process in place at the time, and her husband had also declared they were married.
“I did physically recuse myself from shortlisting, the actual interview and the actual adjudication.” She accepted before the panel she should not have been part of the entire process to avoid any irregularities. “I do regret [it], I wish someone raised that it was irregular,” Johnson said. The matter was raised in parliament as KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged there were rogue elements within IDAC, as the unit investigates a fraud case against police crime intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo. Johnson denied the allegations, asserting that the case against Khumalo was based on complaints levelled against him and that IDAC had the duty to probe.
Read Full Article on Business Day
