DA shadow minister of justice Glynnis Breytenbach maintained yesterday she was innocent of charges she and her former legal representative are facing.
Breytenbach addressed a crowd of DA supporters after she made a brief appearance in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, together with co-accused Gerhard Wagenaar.
They are facing four counts of contravening the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act and two of defeating the ends of justice. They were released on bail of R10000 each.
The charges concern their refusal in 2012 to hand over Breytenbach's official laptop to NPA officials who were investigating acts of misconduct against her, having been informed that the laptop was believed to have information relevant to the NPA’s investigation.
The NPA claimed Breytenbach and Wagenaar destroyed official and private data on Breytenbach’s computer in contravention of the NPA Act.
At the time, Breytenbach was head of the NPA’s specialised commercial crimes unit in Pretoria.
In January 2013, an NPA disciplinary hearing cleared Breytenbach of all 15 charges she faced.
While the bulk of the charges related to her conduct in the investigation of a criminal case lodged by Sishen Iron Ore Company against Imperial Crown Trading, other charges related to her refusal to hand over a laptop, infringing the media policy of the NPA and bringing the organisation into disrepute.
She claimed all along that the charges against her were motivated by her insistence that suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli should be prosecuted on charges of fraud and corruption while NPA bosses had let Mdluli off the hook.
The DA said on Sunday these charges were thoroughly dealt with in disciplinary proceedings against Breytenbach and that she was cleared.
The chairman of the disciplinary inquiry, Advocate Solly Mbenenge SC, who has since joined the bench, said it had not been proven Breytenbach committed the offence created by Section 40A(2)(c) of the NPA Act, namely willfully causing an unauthorised modification of any contents of any computer with the intention to impair the operation of any computer or to prevent any access to data held on that computer.
The case was postponed until March 16 to allow for the appointment of a presiding officer and the disclosure of all documents to the accused.
Breytenbach, speaking to the media outside court, said she was looking forward to the trial even though it was “mildly irritating”.
“I deleted nothing on the computer that was not private. Of course everything that I deleted was on the server, so it was not destroyed, it was just deleted,” Breytenbach said.
DA Tshwane mayoral candidate Solly Msimanga told the crowd that their taxes were being used to fight political battles and said the prosecution was politically motivated.
This was denied by NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku, who said the NPA did not take the decision to prosecute lightly.
DA’s Breytenbach maintains innocence of NPA charges
Breytenbach addressed a crowd of DA supporters after she made a brief appearance in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, together with co-accused Gerhard Wagenaar.
They are facing four counts of contravening the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act and two of defeating the ends of justice. They were released on bail of R10000 each.
The charges concern their refusal in 2012 to hand over Breytenbach's official laptop to NPA officials who were investigating acts of misconduct against her, having been informed that the laptop was believed to have information relevant to the NPA’s investigation.
The NPA claimed Breytenbach and Wagenaar destroyed official and private data on Breytenbach’s computer in contravention of the NPA Act.
At the time, Breytenbach was head of the NPA’s specialised commercial crimes unit in Pretoria.
In January 2013, an NPA disciplinary hearing cleared Breytenbach of all 15 charges she faced.
While the bulk of the charges related to her conduct in the investigation of a criminal case lodged by Sishen Iron Ore Company against Imperial Crown Trading, other charges related to her refusal to hand over a laptop, infringing the media policy of the NPA and bringing the organisation into disrepute.
She claimed all along that the charges against her were motivated by her insistence that suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli should be prosecuted on charges of fraud and corruption while NPA bosses had let Mdluli off the hook.
The DA said on Sunday these charges were thoroughly dealt with in disciplinary proceedings against Breytenbach and that she was cleared.
The chairman of the disciplinary inquiry, Advocate Solly Mbenenge SC, who has since joined the bench, said it had not been proven Breytenbach committed the offence created by Section 40A(2)(c) of the NPA Act, namely willfully causing an unauthorised modification of any contents of any computer with the intention to impair the operation of any computer or to prevent any access to data held on that computer.
The case was postponed until March 16 to allow for the appointment of a presiding officer and the disclosure of all documents to the accused.
Breytenbach, speaking to the media outside court, said she was looking forward to the trial even though it was “mildly irritating”.
“I deleted nothing on the computer that was not private. Of course everything that I deleted was on the server, so it was not destroyed, it was just deleted,” Breytenbach said.
DA Tshwane mayoral candidate Solly Msimanga told the crowd that their taxes were being used to fight political battles and said the prosecution was politically motivated.
This was denied by NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku, who said the NPA did not take the decision to prosecute lightly.
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