Justice department gets a little help from its American friends

Hot on the heels of the United States imposing sanctions on the Gupta family for their corrupt activities in South Africa, the department of justice (DoJ) and constitutional development has announced their own plans to “solicit the services of experienced lawyers to aid the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) as it fulfils its mandate”.

They have, however, stressed that their latest action was not a direct response to the Americans’ steps.

Department spokesperson Chrispin Phiri, who confirmed that a newly appointed team would assist the NPA on high-profile cases, including state capture, said it had been the department’s plan all along to strengthen the NPA and that the NPA had been requesting additional funds since “the beginning of this year”.

He said “the minister of justice and correctional services has been on record on numerous occasions wherein he stated that the NPA must be assisted with all the requisite resources.

“As we speak, the NPA has a vacancy rate which is above 20%,” he said.

“It is in the interests of the nation that this very important constitutional body is able to do its work without any hindrance.

“As a result, the department and Treasury have approved that the NPA solicit the services of experienced lawyers to aid the NPA as it fulfils its mandate.”

He revealed that just over R102 million of addition funding was allocated to this need.

Furthermore, he said R38 million of it would be given to the investigating directorate (ID).

He added that in addition to this amount, the NPA would be giving about R20 million for the “experienced lawyers referred to”.

To explain the technicalities behind this, NPA spokesperson Bulelwa Makeke said “the NPA gets allocated its funding through the department of justice and constitutional development.

“The ID in the NPA was established without additional funding being provided to the NPA for this purpose. The department of justice had to ensure that funding was made available.

“The ID had to apply for, and was granted, special condonation from Treasury to appoint a panel of four outside senior counsels.

Expenditure on their services is capped at R5 million each [hence the R20 million].

“This R20 million will be utilised as part of the R38 million that was made available by the DoJ.

“These senior advocates will be available to assist the ID in investigative work and with the actual prosecution of complex corruption matters related to state capture.”

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