- Johannesburg cluster chief prosecutor advocate Pumeza Futshane is due to appear before a disciplinary hearing on Friday.
- Futshane was suspended in February.
- Her lawyers want the disciplinary process declared null and void.
Ahead of her appearance at a disciplinary hearing on Friday, suspended Johannesburg cluster chief prosecutor advocate Pumeza Futshane's lawyers wrote a letter to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) demanding that the process be declared null and void.
Futshane was suspended in February on charges of nepotism and favouritism.
She is married to advocate Andrew Chauke, the director of public prosecutions in south Gauteng. Chauke is also her line manager. The couple are known critics of NPA head Shamila Batohi.
Last year, Futshane spearheaded a petition against Batohi. Futshane and 30 other prosecutors accused Batohi of wanting to remove her from her position because she was a black woman.
In a letter to the NPA on Thursday, Futshane's lawyer, Frans Mashele of Frans Mashele Incorporated, said they received a notice of the disciplinary hearing last week, charging that it doesn't comply with the law.
Mashele complained the five days given to prepare for the hearing was not enough time to prepare.
Apology
Mashele also said the charges against Futshane were dealt with under the NPA's previous head, Shaun Abrahams.
Mashele said Abrahams apologised to Futshane "for the fact that her conduct had been queried and in which he indicated finally and definitively that no steps of any nature would be taken against her. The National Prosecuting Authority is bound by that decision by a previous National Director of Public Prosecutions".
If necessary, Abrahams would testify in the disciplinary proceedings or give them an affidavit, the communication reads.
He said if the allegations happened after Abrahams left the NPA, they would also be ready to defend them.
"If that is the case, our client obviously would be prepared to meet such allegations and in which event the notice of disciplinary inquiry would have to be obviously significantly altered.
"The period allegedly covered by the questioned conduct is from the 29th January 2015 to the 15th October 2019. This is an extensive period, and the question immediately arises as to when in that extensive period did any of the alleged conduct take place and where did such conduct take place in order to be able to prepare therefore."
Null
Mashele also accused the NPA of sending a disciplinary hearing notice that was incomplete.
"What is inappropriate language? What is inappropriate in one context may be appropriate in another context. It is impossible to prepare to answer these charges when a mere conclusion is averred. What is derogatory language? Again, context speaks for all and date; time, occasion needs to be specified. Language with a racial connotation suffers from the same problems. Which subordinates were addressed and on what occasion?
"No evidence has been provided for our client to know and understand the case brought against her. We, on her behalf, insist not only on a notice of disciplinary hearing, which makes discernible averments of misconduct worthy of being inquired into without their being simple conclusions, but also insists that... the main evidence on which reliance will be placed by the NPA be provided."
While Futshane would attend the hearing with junior counsel on Friday, Mashele said the issues stated in the letter would be raised with the disciplinary tribunal's chairperson.
"As things stand, the notice is a nullity and the Chairperson of the Inquiry should so rule," Mashele said.
NPA spokesperson Sipho Ngwema was asked for comment. This would be added once received.