Editor's Note: Is the NPA entering a new, better era as Batohi exits?

AS we wrap up this extra-long month some refer to now as Janu-worry, many fellow law-abiding South Africans are also saying good riddance to the outgoing head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Advocate Shamila Batohi.

Batohi will go down in history as the prosecutions chief who came in sounding and looking like dynamite in a small package ready to send the “big fish” of crime and corruption to jail but massively disappointed.

But let’s look on the bright side. A new era begins in a few days. A new chief steps up to the plate. And Advocate Andy Mothibi fits the bill in terms of qualifications and experience. The trouble is the underhanded manner in which he was appointed.

With a very promising, precedent-setting public process having been followed seven years ago, everyone expected at least a repeat, if not an improvement, of the same. Instead, the process and the advisory panel left a lot to be desired. I still cringe thinking about some of those embarrassing moments during some of the interviews by the panel that was lacking prosecutions insight and experience.

After all those lengthy interviews – some with embarrassing moments of staged robustness and pointless nitpicking about some of the candidates’ backgrounds – we were told that none of the interviewees was suitable for the job. And then, out of the blue, Mothibi was appointed.

We all know that it’s the president’s prerogative to appoint the NPA chief. But President Cyril Ramaphosa came in with a promise to the nation to make the process more transparent, merit-based and involving public participation – all in the spirit of renewal, cleaning up and rebuilding democratic institutions.

In the end the appointment fiasco left a familiar Ramaphosa aftertaste. A clear result of professing something and doing something else, and wasting precious time in the process. Instead of improving the way this crucial post is filled, South Africa has regressed. But the saddest part is that it put a blot on what would have probably been a clean slate in Mothibi’s briefcase as he steps onto the hot seat.

Now, to many of us, Mothibi can only be seen as a cadre appointed to ensure the right camp’s members are prosecuted – and Number 1 and his cronies are spared. But let’s hope, for the sake of the good fight against crime and corruption, and the future of this country, that he will prove us wrong.