A HIGH level two-day workshop, organised by the Directorate for Pulbic Prosecutions and SAPS was held recently which focused on service delivery as well as proper investigation and successful prosecutions in all serious cases, which included murders, sexual offences and armed robberies.
The workshop was led by Advocate Moipone Noko and Major General Bala Naidoo and was attended by 40 representatives from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), including the chief public prosecutors as well as senior public prosecutors within the province, and 40 representatives from the SAPS, including the provincial heads of the general investigation and organised crime as well as cluster detective coordinators and other senior officers from the provincial office.
During the workshop the SAPS and NPA came up with a joint plan to deal with serious cases with the aim of extending the focus in the near future to deal with other less serious crimes.
Due to the focus being on serious cases, all regional courts were represented in the workshop as it was aimed at encouraging mutual cooperation and a good working relationship between the prosecutors and detectives.
“Similar workshops will be conducted at clusters within the province to address serious crimes. All parties agreed that there will be follow up meetings and workshops at least twice a year at provincial level. Currently there are NPA/SAPS meetings that take place in clusters on a monthly basis which further promote and maintain a mutual working relationship between SAPS and NPA. With regards to these specific cases, experienced prosecutors will be identified to ensure that they are involved during the investigation which will ultimately lead to successful convictions and prosecutions,” said Naidoo.
