Axed National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) boss Nomgcobo Jiba was emotional after receiving news that a court bid to prevent her from practicing as an advocate had failed. This is according to Jiba’s lawyer advocate Zola Majavu, who spoke on her behalf after the Constitutional  Court ruled in her favour on Thursday morning. 

The ConCourt dismissed an application by the General Council of the Bar of SA (GCB) to have Jiba and her colleague Lawrence Mrwebi declared unfit to practise as advocates. Majavu said Jiba was emotional upon hearing about the outcome of the case when he called her immediately after court adjourned.

“She is emotional. When I spoke to her she was distraught. All she said in her mother tongue is Icamagu livumile [my ancestors have answered]. It simply means that she had accepted what has become, it is well with her soul,” Majavu said.

He said it had been a difficult journey since the GCB made a high court application to have Jiba, Mrwebi and Sibongile Mzinyathi, who were all high-ranking officials within the NPA, struck off from the advocates roll in April 2015. 

The high court judgment ruled in favour of the GCB, but Jiba and Mrwebi were successful in overturning that decision at the SA Court of Appeal (SCA). The GCB then made an application for leave of appeal against the SCA judgment at the ConCourt.

Majavu said Jiba would continue to fight to clear her name. He said she would also decide whether to fight to get her job back after certain parliamentary processes have been concluded, adding that Jiba felt that she was being unfairly targeted because she is a black female.

ConCourt judge Chris Jafta read out the unanimous judgment yesterday, stating that the GCB had failed to show that the matter falls within the court’s jurisdiction.

“This court further finds that the GCB did not seek to protect the constitutional right. Instead all it sought to do was to enforce the Admission Act, so as to protect the public and preserve the proper functioning of administrative justice,” Jafta said.

The court dismissed the application for leave to appeal against the SCA judgment. The court further ruled that the GCB should not pay costs despite having lost the case.

In April, President Cyril Ramaphosa fired Jiba after the Mokgoro Commission found that she had acted improperly while handling three cases including the Zuma v DA, a case involving former intelligence boss Richard Mdluli.