Outa still waiting for NPA’s explanation on Aurora

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has said that it was still waiting for the national prosecuting authority (NPA) to explain why the case against Aurora directors was dropped in February.

The organisation said if the NPA was not going to prosecute Aurora directors Khulubuse Zuma, Zondwa Mandela, Thulani Ngubane and Raja Zainal Alam Shah, it will.

It said the Aurora directors were facing charges over the environmental and water transgressions during their ownership of the failed Grootvlei gold mine near Springs from October 2009 to May 2011.

“During this time, the mine pumped untreated acid mine water into the surrounding river system,” Outa said in a statement.

It said since February 2017, it has lobbied for the prosecution to go ahead.

“In February 2020, the court found that that state was not ready for trial and struck the case from the court roll. At the time, Outa wrote to the NPA asking what had happened.

“Six months later, Outa is still waiting for an explanation from the NPA, which has said only that the outstanding investigation is ongoing,” the organisation said.

The director of Outa’s accountability division, Advocate Stefanie Fick wrote to the National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Shamila Batoyi expressing the organisation’s concern “that the accused will not be prosecuted and held accountable”.

Fick requested Batoyi to intervene in the matter.

“This has been an ongoing matter since 2011 and it is unfathomable how a prosecution of this nature can take this long,” Fick said.

In Fick’s letter in February to the NPA, she said that if the NPA decides not to prosecute, Outa will ask for a nolle prosequi certificate (a certificate confirming the decision not to prosecute) so that Outa may pursue a private prosecution.

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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