Inquiry into Andrew Chauke's fitness to hold office riddled with delays due to 'volume of evidence'

The inquiry into the fitness of Johannesburg prosecutions boss, Andrew Chauke, to hold office has been plagued by significant delays this week, which the inquiry's spokesperson attributes to the inherent volume of evidence before it.

The inquiry, established by President Cyril Ramaphosa in September, two years after National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Shamila Batohi lodged a complaint against Chauke, got underway this week. However, hours of proceedings have been lost almost every day.

The proceedings before retired Justice Bess Nkabinde have been riddled with delays and administrative hiccups, causing proceedings to be suspended for several hours almost daily this week.

Some of these administrative glitches have been caused by poor pagination of documents, a point of criticism for Justice Nkabinde and her co-panelists, Advocate Elizabeth Baloyi-Mere and Attorney Matshego Ramagaga.

The inquiry’s spokesperson, Tiyisela Mpuzana, commented on the delays, saying they "come with the process of setting up the inquiry".

"The delays arise from the fact that this inquiry deals with a huge volume of evidence and, as you know, the president gazetted the terms of reference on the 30th of September — it meant that the four months had started. We are trying by all means to stick to the terms of reference, including the timelines."

On Friday, evidence leader Advocate David Mohlamonyane asked for an early adjournment after Justice Nkabinde requested that the documents used be limited and aligned strictly to the terms of reference of the inquiry. Mohlamonyane has committed to being ready to proceed by Monday.