Let Breytenbach tells us why – NPA Senior prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach’s explanation for why her suspension is unfair must ‘come from her own mouth (and) be given under oath’
A City Press report says this was the position adopted by the NPA in arbitration proceedings which got under way in the General Public Service Bargaining Council this week. Advocate William Mokhari, representing the NPA, said Breytenbach ‘has called us here saying she’s been unfairly dismissed, now she must tell us why’. The arbitration proceedings come after Breytenbach’s failed Labour Court application to have her suspension overturned last year. The court ruled that the matter must first be referred to arbitration before it could be argued in the Labour Court.
A few days before her suspension, Breytenbach ‘unsettled some pigeons’, her lawyer told the hearing, notes a report on the IoLsite. Andrew Redding said Breytenbach wrote a memorandum objecting to the withdrawal of charges against former police crime intelligence boss Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli. He said even though there had been a complaint against his client, her employers only sprang into action in this regard after the Mdluli memo was penned in April. In the memorandum, she insisted there was a prima facie case of fraud and corruption against Mdluli. She wanted the decision to withdraw charges against him reviewed. ‘From February all through March and up to 13 April, a period of seven weeks, there was no response at all (from the NPA),’ said Redding. Then, when Breytenbach wrote the memorandum ,’there was a flurry of activity’, he said, adding that on 18 April a senior manager of the NPA’s integrity management unit, Hercules Wasserman, sought Breytenbach’s response to the complaint brought against her by Ronnie Mendelow, the lawyer representing mining company Imperial Crown Trading. The hearing has been postponed to 8 March.