‘Wheels of justice are moving,’ assures NPA head Shamila Batohi

After a slow start, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was poised to prosecute more of the damaging crimes in the public and private sector, NPA head Shamila Batohi told MPs on Tuesday.

The prosecuting authority presented an update on the cases referred to it by the SIU to the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa).

Batohi said although there was still more work to be done, recent court cases on corruption in the private sector showed there was progress three years after she took office.

“We are beginning to move slightly more quickly. Cases on private sector corruption such as the Tongaat Hulett case in KwaZulu-Natal, is an indication that the wheels of justice are moving.

“What’s clear is that even though we are not where we want to be, we are far from where we started. We now have a full leadership team committed to the rule of law, accountability and ensuring we hold people accountable… not only on corruption but all cases the NPA deals with.”

With the work of the state capture commission winding down, resources were being diverted to the NPA’s Investigative Directorate (ID). The commission’s chairperson Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is expected to hand over his last report at the end of the month.

“They (ID) have moved into a new building and will soon have a new leader as announced by the President in his Sona. They are ready to implement strategies and case plans.

“We, however, still face challenges on the ID… we need to look at moving faster to a point where we have a prosecuting-led model in terms of high profile and complicated corruption matters,” she said.

ALSO READ: Will a public-private alliance be effective in tackling state capture?

‘Law enforcement on life support’

Batohi decried the state of law enforcement in the country, saying the crisis needed to be attended to urgently.

She remarked that all arms of law enforcement and the criminal justice system needed to work together and “draw on each other’s strength.”

To achieve this, all needed to respect each other’s mandate while working to reach the same goal.

“Our legal mandates are different but complementary. Whilst internal competition can be healthy, we need to ensure that we are all pulling in the same direction in order to achieve the shared goal, to make sure accountability is a norm, not an exception,” she told the MPs.

ALSO READ: Public execution of NPA prosecutor at Umlazi court raises alarm

Turning to the separate mandates of the NPA and the SIU, Batohi suggested a legislative change on how SIU cases were handled.

She said with the SIU mandate being that of investigating with a goal of asset recovery, the burden of proof such as civil investigations was on a balance of probabilities, while that of the NPA in criminal investigations was that of beyond reasonable doubt, “which is a much higher standard of proof”.

“In terms of the SIU Act, we are mandated to refer cases to NPA. We need to change that in terms of legislation because the NPA doesn’t do criminal investigations, although now, with recent proclamation of the ID, there are some matters that the NPA is dealing with.

“But most of the cases referred to NPA creates the impression that the cases are ready for prosecution, but that is not the case. We basically forward these matters to the DPCI [Hawks] to investigate… we did discuss with the SIU, who also sent cases to DPCI in order to expedite them.

“So we do feel that changes re required in order to address this, so that referrals to NPA are not necessary but referrals to investigative bodies such as ID or DPCI becomes the norm.”

Batohi lamented issues that the NPA is still grappling with, such as the recruitment of skilled personnel and funding.

She said following reports that a public and private partnership to fund the NPA was in the pipeline, the prosecuting body wrote to Justice Minister Ronald Lamola and the department’s director-general Doctor Mashabane to draw up a donor oversight mechanism on donations that the NPA can receive in terms of skills and funding.

“Procurement processes are really slow in government… South Africa has no money. We have serious crisis with money in the NPA that we’re looking to engage the private sector.

“Working through National Treasury, we need to put in place required safeguards to ensure that the NPA mandate is not compromised.”

NOW READ: NPA slammed over delays in prosecution of apartheid atrocities