- In February, Advocate Elna Smit asked her bosses from the NPA to recuse her from the Julius Malema rifle trial because she was white.
- She feared the outspoken EFF leader would play the race card during the trial, but the NPA declined her request.
- She quit the NPA the same day of the trial in February and has never looked back.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in Eastern Cape conceded it had failed to support Advocate Elna Smit, who resigned earlier this year when it refused to allow her to withdraw from Julius Malema's rifle trial.
Smith feared she would be labelled a racist by the firebrand leader.
Speaking on the sidelines of an NPA press conference in East London on Thursday, Director of Public Prosecutions Barry Madolo said the NPA could have better managed the situation.
The NPA accepted Smit's resignation after she quit when it refused her request to be replaced by a prosecutor of colour in the discharge of firearm case against Malema and his bodyguard Adriaan Snyman.
Smit, a white woman, had written to her line manager, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Livingstone Sakata, asking him to remove her from the trial and substitute her with an advocate of colour, because she reportedly feared Malema would call her a racist and attempt to humiliate her during cross-examination.
News24 reported that in her final plea for replacement, which fell on deaf ears, Smit pointed Sakata to the AfriForum hate speech court case, during which Malema was combative towards Advocate Mark Oppenheimer.
Malema called Oppenheimer the weakest lawyer he had ever dealt with and insinuated the case was driven by racism.
The EFF's belief that AfriForum is using the courts as a weapon to criminalise Malema and remove him from the political arena, too, made Smit fear prosecuting Malema.
AfriForum opened the case of discharge of a firearm after Malema was caught on tape apparently firing what appeared to be a semi-automatic rifle in front of a crowd at the EFF's fifth birthday celebrations in Mdantsane in July 2018. The trial resumes in September at the East London Regional Court.
Madolo said: "I admit we could have done better to handle the situation so it did not reach the stage where she would leave but this happened at the 11th hour and all I could [do] at that time was to do damage control, which we did, because that case could have collapsed and embarrassed the organisation as well."
Smit officially tendered her resignation on 28 February, the first day of the trial, after having informed the NPA on 24 February of her intention to resign after the prosecuting authority refused to remove her from the trial.
The NPA then brought in former magistrate, Advocate Joel Cesar at the last minute to replace Smit on 2 March.
The changes delayed the trial by a day, as Cesar asked to use that Monday to study the dockets and bring himself up to speed and speak to state witnesses.
Madolo said he heard about the Smit resignation late and saved the trial by bringing in Cesar.
Asked if he would allow Smit back into the fold, Madolo said:
The EFF said if Smit resigned over fears of being labelled a racist, she was probably one.
Smit declined to comment at the time and could not be reached on Friday.