NPA ‘a long way down the road’ on its vital rebuild

National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Advocate Shamila Batohi, has stated that despite unrelenting pressure and the devastation of State capture, the turnaround of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has been remarkable.

Batohi was speaking during a media roundtable on the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) priorities and strategic initiatives held at the entity’s headquarters in Pretoria.

Batohi – who was appointed as NDPP in 2019 – said the rebuild of what was then a “fractured” organisation, truly began when a full leadership was appointed.

“In March of 2021 we had, finally, the full leadership in place. We could really start properly, as a full leadership team, thinking about this rebuilding process. What we have achieved in that just over three years, is nothing short of remarkable.

“The NPA now is a well run constitutional entity. We have a solid strategy. There are many incredible strategic initiatives… that put the NPA firmly on track to deliver to the people of this country,” she said.

Reflecting on her tenure so far at the entity, Batohi said she came in believing that State capture cases in particular would have moved faster.

“When I came back from the International Criminal Court [where I was a senior legal advisor to the Prosecutor], I had a sense of the challenge and I thought, ‘how difficult is it going to be to get one really big corruption case that’s going to swing sentiment around very quickly’?. I was really quite wrong about that.

“In so far as State capture related cases… I thought we would have been further down the line. For everything else in the NPA, I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved and how far we’ve come since the new leadership came in,” she said.

Stated objectives

Batohi looked back on some of the objectives that she set when she took office, including:

• Addressing the leadership crisis of the NPA.
• Conducting a review of high profile cases relating to the decision to prosecute or not.
• Reviewing the structure of the NPA.
• Securing sufficient budget for the NPA and expanding its partnerships.
• Managing cases related to State capture.
• Creating the Investigating Directorate (ID).
• Stakeholder management.
• Strengthening staff morale and empowerment.
• Instilling the value support of the Independence, Professionalism, Accountability and Credibility pillars.

“It’s not been easy. We’ve been, in the past five years, really hard at work under a lot of pressure. The pressure… in the past five years, has been unrelenting, mainly with regard to State capture. But in the middle of all of this, we’ve been doing incredible work to turn this ship around.

“We’ve stabilised the leadership of the NPA. [The NPA executive]… are the people of the highest standards of integrity, who will do only what the Constitution and the rule of law demands. We have increased staff capacity and capability. We’ve partnered with civil society and the private sector to secure specialist skills that we need in certain very high profile and complex corruption related matters.

“We’ve established the office of ethics and accountability in the NPA. We’ve developed a very forward looking organised crime strategy. We have really focused a lot on building the NPA into a strong entity once more. We’ve come a long way to do that,” she said.

Batohi said since the objectives were set out in 2019, the global landscape has changed dramatically with “deeply troubling” geopolitical tensions, outbreak of conflict and a world impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are working in an environment where… it’s a complex political environment. We have a country where we have load shedding, the poorest and most vulnerable are without basic amenities. We have a country that is wracked by the highest levels of various types of crimes.

“It is in this context… that, as the NPA and as a country, we can’t give up hope. We have to… keep fighting the good fight. And that we have to, as the NPA, being a vital Constitutional entity that’ll contribute to the rebuilding of this country… [we have to] keep fighting the best we can and [the best] we know,” Batohi said. – SAnews.gov.za