Advocate Menzi Simelane came under intense questioning on Thursday during interviews for the soon-to-be-vacant National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) position.
The panel, led by Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi, pressed him about a meeting with the late human rights lawyer Advocate George Bizos.
Simelane explained that Bizos had contacted him earlier seeking a meeting about a matter involving a client he represented.
He said Bizos reached out because he had known Simelane’s father.
“The matter was not yet before the court, and it was purely going to be a meeting,” he said.
However Kubayi, who chaired part of the interview, questioned whether the meeting was not irregular.
Nature of the meeting scrutinised
“No, Minister, that is not irregular,” Simelane insisted.
He further revealed that he had taken a prosecutor with him. Simelane said the prosecutor was working at the NDPP’s office, but not on the case.
Kubayi further asked how an official from Simelane’s office, who was not involved in the case became familiar with it.
According to Simelane, it was common for officials to gather basic information on matters attracting media attention and relay it.
“You could say to an official, ‘please go to that court, find out where the matter is, what the issues are’,” he explained.
“They come back and give you feedback. It was simply to understand what the media was reporting.”
“Why would you send the person to get the case?” Kubayi asked further.
But Simelane said it was not to get the case.
“That, minister, suggests something else. All this individual did was find out about the elements of the matter so that one is familiar. It is different from a formal process.”
When asked whether this was a standard practice or an isolated incident, Simelane said it was a once-off.
Management style
He said his management style is African-Asian approach.
“It is collective engagement, I do not manage people top down. It is the only style of management I know. That communal approach enables buy-in. And I also hold people to account,” he said.
About your management style, Kubayi said one of the candidates earlier on stated that Simelane is able to undermine those that he leads with.
“Oh Hermione? She is correct about that, that I did do. I accept what she said.”
Simelane was appointed by former president Jacob Zuma as director of the South African National Prosecuting Authority in December 2009.
His predecessor was Vusi Pikoli.
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