The DA is to propose to Parliament next week that the Judicial Service Commission – the body that selects judges – should be involved in the selection of the country’s top prosecutor.
The opposition party will table a private members’ Bill proposing this change to the relevant parliamentary committee next week. Appointments to the post of National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) are presently made by the country’s president.
If adopted, this private members’ bill would prevent some of the controversy around the position and its relationship with the executive arm of government. The unrestricted power of the president to fill a post that is supposed to be independent was highlighted by accusations that former NDPP boss Bulelani Ngcuka had pursued a partisan political agenda in the prosecutions against then deputy president Jacob Zuma.
Vusi Pikoli, who was suspended from his position as NDPP by former president Thabo Mbeki in 2007, has said that job should be insulated from the executive to remove doubts about its independence.
The proposed legislation is likely to have better prospects than most of those drafted by the opposition, not least because it may have government backing.
This week South African President Kgalema Motlanthe said he would support calls for the NDPP to be independently appointed.
DA spokesperson on constitutional affairs and the bill’s sponsor, Len Joubert, said the bill would have to amend the National Prosecuting Authority Act and ”possibly the Constitution” to allow the president to receive guidance from the JSC before making an appointment.
The NPA Act would have to be amended to enable the president to make an appointment ”after consulting the Judicial Service Commission”.
Closely following the procedure for the appointment of judges, the DA bill would require the JSC to interview candidates in public and submit a short list of three to the president.
”The president may make appointments from the list and must advise the JSC, with reasons, if all three nominees are unacceptable,” it says.
If the president rejects the short list, the draft bill proposes that the 23-member JSC – which comprises MPs, judges and legal professionals — would have to re-interview candidates.
The draft Bill also makes a provision for the president to consult the JSC, the justice minister and the NDPP on the appointment of the three deputy national directors.