Big fish in NPA net, says Batohi

• Justice is slow but ‘impunity no longer prevails’

The notion that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is doing nothing to prosecute state capture and corruption cases is “wrong and dangerous”, its head, Shamila Batohi, says.

The notion that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is doing nothing to prosecute state capture and corruption cases is “both wrong and dangerous”, national director of public prosecutions Shamila Batohi said in parliament on Wednesday.

She said the NPA will not succumb to public or media pressure over the prosecution of these cases.

“We are one of the few prosecuting authorities across the world where we can say that we are prosecuting former ministers, the former secretarygeneral of the ruling party, the former president of the country and also some of the most powerful CEOs and private sector actors in the country.

“These cannot by any measure be regarded as small fish,” Batohi said in a briefing to parliament’s justice committee on the NPA’s 2022/23 annual report.

“The NPA has made significant progress in delivering overall on its mandate to deal with state capture and corruption,” Batohi said.

“The reality is that while the wheels of justice move slowly in SA, impunity no longer prevails, and those with dirty hands know that it is just a matter of time before that dreaded knock on the door will come.

“The NPA cannot and will not be rushed due to public or media pressure. This is when mistakes may happen which the NPA cannot afford.

“We will only proceed when there are reasonable prospects for successful prosecution.”

Batohi said the findings of the Zondo commission of inquiry, which identified alleged corruption cases, have not provided a blueprint for successful prosecutions. Successful prosecution of corruption cases is complex and requires an onerous standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Many cases under investigation in SA are the most difficult to prosecute, even by global standards. They often involve multiple accused, multiple jurisdictions and complicated digital evidence. Batohi acknowledged, however, that too many architects of state capture remain unaccountable and there is a lot of work still to be done.

She told MPs that the NPA’s Investigating Directorate, which is dedicated to the prosecution of high-profile corruption cases, declared 99 investigations and enrolled 34 cases involving 205 accused people.

ASSETS

The specialised commercial crime unit and directors of public prosecutions in the regions have enrolled 78 cases involving 363 accused. The Asset Forfeiture Unit and its partners have secured freezing or preservation orders to the value of R14bn, and recoveries to the value of R5.4bn have been made.

Batohi said the NPA deals with about 650,000 cases countrywide every year.

After a difficult trajectory for the NPA she is confident that the strategy it has adopted placed it on the right path. “has We are seeing positive results with each passing year,” she said.

Deputy national director of public prosecutions Anton du Plessis said the Zondo commission released its report and recommendations only in June 2022 and the Investigating Directorate has made significant progress since then. Corruption cases often take five to six years to finalise.

NPA chief director of strategy management Salome Baloyi reported that in the 2022/23 financial year convictions were achieved in 419 (364 in the previous year) complex commercial crime cases, 89 cases of money-laundering and R495m was subject to forfeiture. The value of freezing orders obtained from corruption or related offences was R570m.

Deputy director of public prosecutions and head of the national prosecutions service Rodney de Kock reported that the NPA achieved an 87% conviction rate of government officials for specialised commercial crimes, a 94.4% conviction rate for organised crime cases and 92.9% for cyber crimes.