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Another NPA bungle as Zuma gives Ramaite golden handshake

President Jacob Zuma’s choice as the acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority lacks the necessary security clearance and was until recently facing criminal charges for drunken driving‚ the newspaper reported.

Deputy director of public prosecutions Silas Ramaite replaces former NPA head Mxolisi Nxasana‚ who has been given a golden handshake of an estimated R6-million after an aborted commission of inquiry into his fitness to hold office.

The commission‚ which was to have looked into Nxasana’s fitness to hold office after his alleged failure to inform the president of his previous encounters with the law‚ had not even started last month when Zuma ended it with a late-night call to the commission head‚ Nazeer Cassim.

Ramaite was arrested for drunken driving after allegedly crashing his Jaguar into another vehicle in Limpopo in June 2011.

NPA spokesman Bulelwa Makeke told The Times last night that the charges had been withdrawn‚ but she would be able to say only today why they were withdrawn.