By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
National Director of Public Prosecutions Adv. Shamila Batohi says a team of senior counsel studied the judgment in the Timothy Omotoso trial and advised that there are sufficient grounds to appeal the acquittal.
The NPA has been hauled before Parliament’s Justice Committee to explain the failures in the case, and the course it will take to get justice for the victims in the sexual assault and human trafficking matter.
Batohi stated that the NPA has formally requested clarification from the trial judge regarding factual findings in the judgment, an essential step prior to launching a formal appeal.
She said although the judgment has been a setback, she underscored that it should not distract from the real work being done and support the NPA and its partners in consistently providing support to gender-based violence (GBV) victims.
Batohi also said they have taken measures to ensure accountability and justice prevails following the devastating impact of the judgment.
DA’s Adv Glynnis Breytenbach fired the first salvo. She said the prosecutors who were assigned to the Omotoso case “were not worth their salt” and handled the case “poorly” and “badly”.
Breytenbach urged Batohi to tell the committee how the NPA bungled the Omotoso case. Also how they are going to fix the NPA’s loss of the case.
MK Party’s Sibonelo Nomvalo said Batohi’s office should have detected much earlier that there was a problem with the Omotoso prosecution team. This is because they were unable to raise objections during the trial when they were supposed to.
“The NDPP should vacate her office and resign with immediate effect. You [Batohi] should have handled this matter better. The NDPP’s presentation does not give us a sequential process of how the prosecution of the Omotoso case went wrong, “said Nomvalo.
EFF’s Nqobile Mhlongo made reference to victims of rape. He told Batohi that victims of rape are now going to be discouraged from opening cases against perpetrators in future. And this is because of Omotoso’s acquittal.
“The NPA should hang its head in shame for failing the victims in the Timothy Omotoso case. In the judgement, the judge said the prosecutors were unethical and incompetent. When the lawyers of the prosecution are incompetent, it leaves the victims vulnerable,” said Mhlongo.
Batohi told the MPs that the investigation into the conduct of the prosecuting team started last August to identify possible misconduct.
“If the investigation confirms any possible misconduct, the matter will be referred to the NPA’s office of ethics and accountability to deal with those cases.”
She also said team conducting the investigation has been bolstered and it was expected to complete its work in June.
Batohi indicated that the NPA was committed to cooperating with any envisaged commission of inquiry that may be undertaken.
“While we maintain in our appeal that the judge erred in certain findings, this judgment has had devastating impact and dented the confidence in the NPA and justice system,” she said.
Omotoso has been in jail awaiting trial since 2017 after his dramatic arrest at the Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport in Gqeberha in that year. A drawn-out court case followed that was marred by allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.