Rational Perspective

Three years into a proposed ten year term, South Africa today ridded itself of the deeply tainted head of National Prosecuting Authority. Its Constitutional Court ruled that NPA head Shaun Abrahams - who has catapulted four levels into the top job from the legal equivalent of the backbenches - should never have been appointed in the first place. His elevation came after former president Jacob Zuma paid off the previous NPA head with a R17m golden handshake. According to former public prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach, the appointment of Abrahams was “like taking a child who has learned to ride a bicycle with training wheels and giving him a jumbo jet and expecting everything to be OK.” Shortly after Abrahams took office, the NPA launched a series of unsuccessful actions against Breytenbach, former finance minister Pravin Gordhan and a number of other anti-corruption activists. Among those most affected by the Abrahams regime was Paul O’Sullivan of Forensics for Justice...O’Sullivan describes the former NPA na