A disgruntled Western Cape prosecutor who was not shortlisted for a senior position has failed to interdict his employer.

Derrick Grootboom hauled the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the justice minister to the labour court in Cape Town, hoping to stop the recruitment of the head control prosecutor in Malmesbury.

Eric Ntabazalila, the NPA's provincial spokesperson, said Grootboom was unhappy about being omitted from the shortlist and brought an urgent application.

“The urgent application is brought against the NPA, the minister of justice and correctional services and Ms Hester Cross, who is the chairperson of the panel interviewing candidates for the position and chief prosecutor of the cluster,” said Ntabazalila.

“[Grootboom] applied for the post of head court control prosecutor Bellville—Malmesbury. A selection committee was properly appointed consisting of four people including Ms Cross.

“It met on August 5 2021, agreed on a set of criteria for shortlisting candidates and proceeded to consider and to score all 139 applications.

“Mr Grootboom’s application failed to meet the minimum threshold to be shortlisted. Consequently, he was not included in the shortlist of 14 candidates after scores were allocated.

“An interview report with appropriate recommendations was submitted on October 1 2021. On October 19 2021 Grootboom requested reasons for the decision not to shortlist him and they were provided on the same day.”

Ntabazalila said Grootboom approached the court last Friday.

“In his complaint he alleges, without substantiating the allegation, that Ms Cross is biased against him and asks the court to issue a prohibitory interdict interdicting all three respondents from proceeding with the recruitment process,” he said.

Ntabazalila said Grootboom also wanted the recruitment process to be declared invalid and unlawful and asked the court to compel the NPA to start it afresh, without Cross’s involvement.

On Friday, Ntabazalila said the court had struck the application off the roll.

“The NPA is further of the view that Mr Grootboom’s urgent application is devoid of any substantive merit and lacked legal conformity to be considered urgent,” he said.

“The NPA remains committed to fair recruitment practices in line with its recruitment policy.”

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