Peak State Capture prosecutor Andrew Chauke faces suspension and inquiry into fitness to hold office

A request to President Cyril Ramaphosa by National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Shamila Batohi that Johannesburg Director of Public Prosecutions Andrew Chauke be suspended has vindicated those affected by the alleged political weaponisation of the office during his tenure.

Batohi wrote to Ramaphosa on Monday after informing Chauke of her intention to recommend suspension pending an inquiry into the advocate’s fitness to hold office.

For more than a decade, Chauke’s conduct during an investigation into since convicted former Crime Intelligence head Richard Mdluli, as well as his handling of the “Cato Manor” police unit saga, has consumed the lives of those targeted.

Former KZN Hawks head Johan Booysen was one such dartboard when in 2012, along with 27 other members of the Cato Manor Unit, he was accused by the NPA and Chauke of racketeering and various other serious crimes.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-04-joburgs-king-of-public-prosecutions-andrew-chauke/

Booysen spent three years in the courts challenging the prosecution and won. He retired early in 2017 and made it his mission to expose those who had interfered in high-profile investigations.

The charges against Booysen were withdrawn by the Durban High Court in 2019.

The decorated cop was probing Edward Zuma, the son of former president Jacob Zuma, and his links to a corruption investigation, when attempts to derail his career began.

Along the way, Booysen had to slalom-dodge the acting national head of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba, who had authorised the charges, as well as a further stillborn attack by her successor, advocate Shaun Abrahams, who in 2016 reinstated the charges the court had already dismissed.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Ghosts of Zuma and Conflicts of Interest lurk behind Jiba, Mrwebi SCA majority finding

Abrahams had claimed additional information had been obtained. After recommendations contained in a damning 2019 report by advocate Rodney de Kock, Batohi withdrew the charges against Booysen and his fellow accused.

A list of familiar names who featured in the justice cluster during Zuma’s presidency and who made a turn at the frontlines, apart from Jiba — who was fired by Ramaphosa in 2019 along with Advocate Lawrence Mrwebi — currently dealing with disciplinary hearings include prosecutors Anthony Mosing, Gladstone Maema and Raymond Mathenjwa.

Abrahams’ appointment was declared invalid in December 2017 in the Pretoria High Court by the Gauteng Judge President, Dunstan Mlambo.

Advocate Moipone Noko, a former head of the NPA in KZN, who was also accused of manipulating charges, resigned in 2021 as head of the NPA in North West (where she had been transferred) before facing a disciplinary hearing.

Chauke’s wife, Pumeza Futshane, chief prosecutor at the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court, was fired in 2022 after a disciplinary hearing found her guilty of making xenophobic and racist comments.

Glynnis Breytenbach, a former NPA prosecutor and now a DA MP, who pursued Mdluli and was unlawfully suspended and charged to thwart her case against the Zuma ally, was also targeted by Chauke.

The charges against Mdluli were reinstated in the Pretoria High Court by Judge John Murphy in 2013.

Chauke was also involved in the botched high-profile “two dockets” Senzo Meyiwa murder investigation as Director of Public Prosecutions. In June 2022, the Pretoria High Court ordered Chauke to clarify matters.

Chauke placed the blame for the decision to prosecute seven people in the “second docket” on an opinion that had been given by a junior State advocate.

In 2022, Open Secrets published a comprehensive investigation of the life and times of Advocate Chauke which set out, in detail, where he fits into the greater puzzle of the State Capture years.

As Director of Public Prosecutions, he was responsible for making decisions on prosecutions headed for the Johannesburg High Court, including State Capture matters. DM