Bulelani Ngcuka, the National Director of Public Prosecutions, knows more than most that five years can be a very long time in politics – and that there are no permanent friends and foes in this game.
When he was appointed, exactly five years ago on August 1, those who were against the move feared that as an African National Congress MP he would not be fully impartial.
Just before starting his job, Ngcuka told the Mail & Guardian: ”I recognise these fears [of political partiality]. It is going to be incumbent on me when I assume this post to demonstrate my impartiality and independence. ”It would be foolish of me to advance the ANC and to prejudice other parties. I certainly have no intention of doing that.”
The former United Democratic Front leader, activist lawyer and deputy chairperson of the National Council of Provinces seems to have exerted his independence far too much for his comrades. Halfway through his 10-year, non-renewable term, it is his erstwhile comrades who are accusing him of pandering to political whims.
In July 1998 Democratic Alliance spokesperson on justice Douglas Gibson condemned the appointment of ”someone knee-deep in politics to a post which should be non-political”.
This week Gibson complimented Ngcuka’s courage, shown by his office’s decision to prosecute political heavyweights Tony Yengeni and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and subject Deputy President Jacob Zuma to a criminal investigation. Not everyone is convinced of Ngcuka’s impartiality.
An ANC source close to the arms deal investigation this week charged Ngcuka with changing his attitude at various stages of the arms deal investigation.
”Initially Ngcuka was very enthusiastic. He told Gavin Woods [the then chair of Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts, or Scopa] and Andrew Feinstein [the ANC MP who resigned protesting ”executive interference” in the investigation] that he was going to leave no stone unturned and was even going to be investigating the deal internationally.
