/ 31 January 2017

Gerrie Nel quits the NPA, reportedly to join AfriForum

Nicknamed the “bulldog” prosecutor, Gerrie Nel is a former provincial wrestler who teaches the sport to schoolchildren. Reuters
The head of AfriForum's private prosecution unit, Gerrie Nel, reiterated that he believed the mastermind behind the murder of Senzo Meyiwa was still walking free. (Reuters)

The prosecutor who jailed Oscar Pistorius and former top cop Jackie Selebi has quit.

Career state advocate Gerrie Nel has given the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) 24 hours’ notice of his resignation.

Nel is the former head of the now defunct Scorpions in Gauteng.

His immediate resignation after 35 years’ service, five years away from retirement, will send shockwaves through the beleaguered NPA, which has had four heads in the past decade.

Nel led the Scorpions’ Operation Bad Guys investigation into Selebi and the late mining magnate Brett Kebble. He received an international prosecutors’ award for his successful prosecution of Selebi, who also headed Interpol, on charges of corruption.

Nel was the chief prosecutor in the State’s murder case against former Paralympic champion Pistorius. In 2015 the Supreme Court of Appeal changed Pistorius’s culpable homicide conviction to murder.

In 2008 Nel was arrested on trumped-up fraud charges while pursuing Selebi. It later emerged that suspended deputy NPA head, Nomgcobo Jiba, was instrumental in securing an arrest warrant against Nel.

In 2011 City Press reported that Jiba’s hostility against Nel was caused by his involvement in a fraud case against her husband, Booker Nhantsi.

Nhantsi, a former lawyer and Scorpions investigator, was jailed for stealing money from his law firm’s trust account. President Jacob Zuma later expunged Nhantsi’s criminal record.

Nicknamed the “bulldog” prosecutor, Nel is a former provincial wrestler who teaches the sport to schoolchildren.

News24 has also reported that Nel will be joining AfriForum to pursue private prosecutions on their behalf. – News24

 

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