By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South African political party ActionSA is demanding action over the Department of Justice (DoJ)’s obstructive kneecapping of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
This follows reports that the NPA is facing delays from the Justice Ministry in accessing crucial evidence for state capture cases and in establishing the Investigating Directorate (ID) permanently.
Additionally, a failure to maintain a key digital evidence database, previously gathered by State Capture Commission investigators, which has resulted in the NPA and ID losing access to vital incriminating information, putting state capture prosecutions at risk.
In a statement, Athol Trollip said ActionSA is outraged to learn that the ID has apparently been maliciously prevented from accessing the database containing troves of vital state capture evidence due to the Department of Justice’s failure to maintain the database, this despite nearly 20 letters from the NPA pleading for access.
This outrage is compounded by the fact that the Minister of Justice has yet to respond to related correspondence and to finalise the implementation of the NPA Amendment Act, which was assented to by President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year, said Trollip.
Trollip said, ActionSA demands that the Department of Justice answers for this colossal failure, given that the final state capture reports, which cost taxpayers R1 billion to produce, were handed to Ramaphosa over two years ago, yet South Africans have yet to see a single implicated individual charged, prosecuted and in orange overalls.
“In light of the urgent need to ensure the ID is adequately capacitated, Ramaphosa must intervene by directing that the DoJ finalise the implementation of the NPA Amendment Act without delay, added Trollip.
“Additionally, ActionSA reiterates the urgent need to safeguard the NPA’s independence, which must include measures to significantly increase its funding and allocate its budget directly from the Division of Revenue Act, rather than through the Department of Justice.”
Section 179 of the Constitution stipulates that national legislation must ensure that the prosecuting authority exercises its functions “without fear, favour or prejudice”.
The NPA is run as a programme within the Department of Justice and the director general of that department, who is not even a member of the NPA, is its official accounting officer.
Corruption is at the root of much of the dysfunction in service delivery in SA; it fuels patronage and kleptocracy and ought to be regarded as intolerable by those who govern in the seventh Parliament.