Mammoth task ahead for Batohi and NPA as state capture cases descend thick and fast

The “avalanche” of state capture cases National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi last year said she was preparing for is starting to descend thick and fast.

Her increasing workload comes in the wake of the release of the findings of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, chaired by Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

And as she and her team now face the mammoth task of what – and who – to go after, anti-corruption lobbyists say they should start small.

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) chief executive Wayne Duvenage said on Wednesday: “The first thing I would do is go after the low-hanging fruit.

“There are some very clear cases. And you don’t need to find 100 charges to throw at someone, you just need one or two and to get them in the dock and behind bars. That’s what South Africans want to see: people behind bars.”

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This could, potentially, place the likes of former minister and Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane, found to have received “gratification”, as well as former department of correctional services bigwigs Linda Mti and Patrick Gillingham, Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Thabang Makwetla and former chair of the Jacob Zuma Foundation Dudu Myeni – all of whom Zondo found had prima facie cases against them – in the firing line.

Speaking at a briefing in September, Batohi said her office was already expecting an “avalanche” of cases, and had made corruption a top priority.

However, they would have to be “strategic” in terms of the cases they ultimately pursued against the backdrop of the limited resources they had. Outa’s Rudi Heineke said President Cyril Ramaphosa should act immediately against those implicated in the Zondo report who still held senior positions in the executive and the government.

“The time to put the country ahead of the ANC is long overdue,” Heineke said.

Accountability Now head and legal expert advocate Paul Hoffman took a more indiscriminate approach, insisting authorities should not cherrypick cases.

“What should happen, if there is equality before the court as the constitution says there should be, is that everybody fingered should be investigated and everyone whom there is a reasonable possibility could be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt should be put in the dock to stand trial,” he said.

He believed, though, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was “congenitally incapable” of doing the work the Zondo commission had tasked it with.

“What needs to happen is reform of the criminal justice administration system in order to capacitate them,” he said.

The NPA wasn’t currently in a position to muster the “army of prosecutors” which Zondo indicated previously would be needed to take his findings further.

“It’s been hollowed out and under-resourced because of state capture,” he said.

What was now needed was a new body with adequate resources and specialist recruits who had the security of tenure they needed to do their work independently.

– bernadettew@citizen.co.za