Mr Speaker, that is an awfully long-winded way of saying that the President hasn't yet sought his opinion. Please allow me to ask the hon Deputy Minister the following: If the President should consult the hon Minister, as he will again, on a chosen candidate whose CV or work history contains unresolved disciplinary issues, will the hon Minister once again ignore such issues? I refer, of course, to the fact that he rejected the Public Service Commission's, PCS's, recommendation of April 2009, when the view of the PSC was solicited by the then Minister of Justice, Enver Surty, that Adv Simelane should be subjected to a disciplinary inquiry following his performance at the Ginwala Inquiry. The Minister rejected that recommendation.
I refer also to the abandonment of disciplinary proceedings against the present acting NDPP before her appointment as the acting deputy NDPP. Proceedings against her were abandoned perhaps as a result of the intercession of the hon Minister. The hon Minister seems to approve the appointment of prosecuting heads with disciplinary clouds hanging over their heads.
I don't need to spell out to the Deputy Minister that our courts have now said that objective jurisdictional facts must demonstrate the fitness and propriety of an NDPP in order to demonstrate their integrity, conscientiousness and experience. Therefore, such unresolved disciplinary issues, when hanging over the head of a potential appointee, militate against the requirement of fitness and propriety. Is the hon Minister going to ignore disciplinaries once again. [Time expired.]