President Cyril Ramaphosa named a respected female lawyer on Tuesday to head South Africa’s prosecuting authority which had been accused of improperly protecting former president Jacob Zuma.
His appointment of Shamila Batohi further distances him from Zuma’s scandal-tainted rule during which several top jobs, including head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), were filled with loyalists.
“I am confident that the advocate possesses all the attributes of a capable National Director of Public Prosecutions… she has shown herself to be a fit and proper person,” Ramaphosa told reporters in Pretoria.
Batohi’s predecessor Shaun Abrahams was dubbed “Shaun the sheep” for his slavish loyalty to Zuma and repeatedly manoeuvered to protect him from facing a slew of corruption charges linked to a 1990s arms deal.
It was in the dying days of his tenure that Abrahams decided to reinstate the graft charges which Zuma is now seeking to have dropped. Read more