Now that more than a glass and a half of Estina Dairy milk has been spilt by the National Prosecuting Authority during its successive Gupta-related litigious setbacks, it is time for Shaun Abrahams to reconsider his position as Jacob Zuma’s choice for appointment as national director of public prosecutions.

Abrahams has two options: first, and preferably, to fall on his sword by resigning (without waiting for the outcome of the appeal to the Constitutional Court concerning the validity of his appointment), or, second, to sue those critics who have gone beyond the widely used label of serial incompetence on his part to suggest that, as a Zuma man and appointee, he is deliberately throwing the cases against the Guptas.

Merely trying to keep calm and carry on won’t cut it: the only public servant with constitutionally conferred policy-making powers has to act “without fear, favour or prejudice”, because that is what the Constitution stipulates.

Abrahams can’t possibly do so credibly without confronting the more trenchant critics of his woeful track record.

Paul Hoffman
SC Accountability Now

Letter published in Bdlive on 31 May 2018