By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to oppose an urgent application filed before the High Court in Pretoria to interdict the appointment of the next National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP).
The legal challenge is brought by Law firm B Xulu and Partners Incorporated, which seeks to halt the appointment process scheduled for January 2026.
The law firm has taken issue with the Advisory Panel’s failure to properly consider its objection to Adv Hermoine Cronje’s candidature. The latter is a former head of the NPA’s Investigating Directorate.
The current NDPP Shamila Batohi is due to retire, pending a review of the selection process.
The Advisory Panel is chaired by Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi, announced that it had shortlisted six candidates for the position.
Batohi is slated to be the first NDPP ever to leave without being removed, retiring based on age, not years of service.
The NDPP is the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and is responsible for ensuring that criminal prosecutions are conducted without fear, favour, or prejudice.
The panel identified former NPA head Adv. Menzi Simelane, Cronje, and current NPA investigative directorate against corruption unit head Adv. Andrea Johnson, the director of public prosecutions in the Western Cape, Adv. Nicolette Astraid Bell, the deputy director of public prosecutions in the Western Cape, Adv. Adrian Carl Mopp; and Adv. Xolisile Jennifer Khanyile, who currently serves as the chairperson of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime.
In a brief statement, the department says, the court application does not meet the requirements for urgency and is premature, as president Cyril Ramaphosa is still considering the report submitted by the panel.
The respondents have until Wednesday, 31 December 2025, to file their court papers in response to an urgent high court application.
The firm’s director, Barnabas Xulu, submitted a 99-page objection accusing Cronje of “unlawful information peddling” and allegedly sharing confidential state information with external parties during her tenure at the Investigating Directorate in 2020.
Xulu argues that the advisory panel’s failure to address the objection rendered the entire selection process unlawful, biased and procedurally unfair, and is seeking an order compelling the panel to scrap its work and withdraw its report.
The matter is set to be heard in early January.
Meanwhile Advocate Anton Du Plessis, the NPA’s deputy national director of public prosecutions, resigned for personal and family reasons.
Du Plessis said: “I am grateful to President Ramaphosa for the opportunity to serve when the defence of the rule of law truly mattered.
“Rebuilding the NPA has been difficult and often contested, but necessary.
“I am proud of the platform we leave behind and confident that the incoming NDPP will take this work forward.”
Before returning to the NPA as deputy national director of public prosecutions in 2021, he led the Institute for Security Studies and worked across more than 20 African countries. He holds three law degrees, is an admitted advocate of the High Court, and has more than 13 years’ experience in legal and management roles.