President Cyril Ramaphosa has established an inquiry into the fitness of Advocate Andrew Chauke to hold office as South Gauteng Director of Public Prosecutions.

Chauke was suspended, with full pay, by President Ramaphosa in July this year, pending the finalisation of the inquiry.

According to the Presidency: “The inquiry will look into certain serious allegations regarding Adv Chauke’s fitness and propriety to hold office as a Director of Public Prosecutions and as a member of the National Prosecuting Authority.”

Adv Chauke was appointed South Gauteng Director of Public Prosecutions in September 2011.

Ramaphosa has appointed a three-person committee to lead the inquiry chaired by retired Justice Bess Nkabinde, who will be supported by Adv Elizabeth Baloyi-Mere SC and Ms Thenjiwe Vilakazi, an attorney.

Justice Nkabinde will submit a report to the President at the conclusion of the inquiry.

Chauke is linked to allegations of impropriety, including bringing unfounded charges against KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head General Johan Booysen.

Those charges were allegedly part of an information operation run by corrupt political and state actors to derail legitimate criminal investigations. Fake news stories about General Booysen running a “death squad” in KwaZulu-Natal were widely circulated in the South African media at the time.

Booysen was later fully cleared and filed a multi-million rand damages claim against the state.

Information operations such as that which targeted Booysen have become more common in South Africa, where corrupt state and criminal actors manufacture fake news campaigns and get media channels with large followings to run these in order to undermine legitimate criminal investigations or legitimate political activities.