Facing suspension, Gauteng NPA head Andrew Chauke lashes out at his boss

15 Aug 2023

Advocate Andrew Chauke, who has been recommended for suspension pending an inquiry into his fitness to hold office, has hit back at his boss, National Prosecuting Authority head Shamila Batohi.

In correspondence with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shamila Batohi, dated 14 August, Gauteng NPA boss Andrew Chauke lashed out, saying Batohi had been “premature and incompetent” in recommending his suspension and an inquiry into his fitness to hold office.

Batohi wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, 13 August after informing Chauke of her intention to recommend suspension pending an inquiry.

In this instance, Chauke said, Ramaphosa was yet to exercise his discretion to institute such an inquiry and as such, suggesting he should stay at home on full pay was not for Batohi to decide.

It was the President’s job to suspend him and institute the inquiry, Chauke argued.

Mists of time

Chauke said the matters that Batohi had concluded had affected his fitness to hold office “go back many years, at least nine years in each case”.

He was referring to the long-running saga of attempts to bring former Crime Intelligence head Richard Mdluli before the courts on charges of kidnapping, intimidation and assault, which Chauke had declined to prosecute. There’s also the saga involving former KZN Hawks head Johan Booysen and the Cato Manor unit, charges pursued by Chauke that were later set aside by a court.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Joburg’s king of public prosecutions, Andrew Chauke

He could not “fathom” what prejudice the NPA would suffer “if I remained in office while the president considers your request”, Chauke claimed

Batohi’s recommendation of suspension was “unreasonable, irrational and inconsistent with the spirit and purport of section 12 (6) of the National Prosecutions Act”, he said.

He was “perplexed” by the insistence that he had committed any act of misconduct in withdrawing murder charges against Mdluli. He had done this based on the pending outcome of an autopsy of the victim, Oupa Ramogibe, he set out.

After a Supreme Court of Appeal decision which had supported his action, Chauke said, the then NPA head Mxolisi Nxasana had also been driven by concerns of a lack of evidence to sustain the murder charge against Mdluli.

He said charges were later reinstated against Mdluli, but not for murder.

‘It was not me’

His role in the Booysen case, Chauke said, had been insignificant.

“I was never given nor had prosecutorial powers in the case. I could never have completely instituted charges against the accused persons in this matter,” he said.

What he had done was “merely co-ordinate the work of the prosecutors involved in the matter on instruction of the then acting NDPP, advocate Nomgcobo Jiba”.

Advocate Moipone Noko was then the Director of Public Prosecutions in KZN and had made “all the prosecutorial decisions”.

When Nxasana took office he had been summoned to discuss the matter, Chauke explained to Batohi.

“He instructed me to cease my involvement in the matter and admonished me from getting involved in a matter outside the Gauteng province, to which I was appointed,” the advocate said.

He had “heeded” this and “ceased forthwith to be involved with the matter”. Nxasana’s decision, he added, “binds you to the office you occupy” and he would call the former NPA head to testify to this.

He “implored” Batohi to consider his representation as to why he should not be suspended “with an open mind”. DM

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Mists of time

‘It was not me’