In essence, Ramaphosa's surprise appointment of Andy Mothibi as head of the National Prosecuting Authority took us back to the State Capture era when then president Jacob Zuma simply appointed who he wanted to run the NPA. This precedent can now be followed by whoever succeeds him.

How President Cyril Ramaphosa eventually appointed Andy Mothibi as the new National Director of Public Prosecutions, and the recent revelations about corruption at the top of the SAPS, show that reform of the leadership selection process is needed. The door might be opening for Ramaphosa to change the way these appointments are made, and so to force more transparency into the system.

Last week, in a surprise announcement, Ramaphosa revealed he had appointed Mothibi as the new head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), to take over at the end of January.

The main reason for the surprise was that Mothibi was not among those interviewed in public by the panel set up expressly for this purpose.

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Ramaphosa says the panel found that none of the candidates was suitable. Given that several candidates, including Hermione Cronje, had years of prosecutorial experience and had held senior positions in the past, this is incredibly surprising.

The real problem was probably with the panel in the first place. It simply did not have the right people to make a recommendation. It had no prosecutors and there was no justification for including some lawyer bodies while excluding others.

Its decision to include Menzi Simelane...