Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota on Thursday sacked Brigadier General Ernest Zwane from his position as director of military prosecutions.
This comes after it became known that Zwane has previously been convicted on two counts of fraud and was also convicted of possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.
Lekota said that at the time of Zwane’s appointment the information about his convictions was not made available to him.
He has ordered a ”deeper scrutiny” of the processes involved in senior appointments.
Lekota said he would decide next week on Zwane’s future and on whom to appoint as new director of prosecutions.
Outcry
Opposition parties on Tuesday decried the appointment of Zwane as the South African National Defence Force’s (SANDF) director of prosecutions.
”The decision by the SANDF to appoint convicted criminal Brigadier General Ernest Zwane as the new director of prosecutions is disgraceful and sends the wrong message about the department’s attitude towards crime and its own administration,” Democratic Alliance spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said.
Independent Democrats chief whip Avril Harding said putting Zwane in the top legal position in the SANDF ”is like putting the mice in charge of the cheese”.
Jankielsohn intended submitting parliamentary questions to Lekota, asking why the decision was made and whether he was aware of Zwane’s criminal record when he approved the appointment.
”The DA believes the minister should immediately intervene and freeze the appointment, and the process to select a suitable candidate should be restarted,” he said at the time.
Jankielsohn said according to reports in the media, Zwane was found guilty in November 2005 of two charges of fraud after he claimed to have qualifications from Fort Hare University, among other claims.
He was also found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm and ammunition.
”Zwane was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on the two fraud charges. The sentence was suspended for five years.
”He was fined R4 000 for illegally being in possession of a firearm and R1 000 for the ammunition contravention, or 18 months’ imprisonment.”
Zwane and another defence force general, Brigadier General Petronella Mari — both employed by the South African Military Health Service — were caught by the Scorpions in November 2002 in an investigation into state officials with fake qualifications, he said.
Harding said Zwane should be dismissed immediately.
”Putting a person with a criminal record in the top legal position in the SANDF is like putting the mice in charge of the cheese,” he said.
”Zwane’s CV a few years ago, before the Scorpions got hold of him anyway, was quite impressive.
”He had a law degree from the University of the North and a BA in communications from Fort Hare. He even had a third. Since his brush with Scorpions, however, Zwane has had to forfeit two of them.”
The Military Discipline Supplementary Measures Act requires that only appropriately qualified officers, with not less than five years’ experience in military justice, be assigned to the function of director of military prosecutions.
”Considering that the Act says the right person for the position must be ‘a fit and proper person of sound character’, whoever found Brigadier General Zwane did a very poor job.
”Needless to say, the ID expects the military to act without hesitation to correct this mighty blunder,” Harding said. — Sapa