In order to tackle complex state-capture corruption cases and remove South Africa from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks, will be getting support from the private sector.
The team will work closely with the NPA in extracting data from encrypted devices to produce evidence that is admissible in court.
The government anticipates that South Africa will be able to remove itself from the grey list by the next FATF meeting in January 2025, however, it first it must show that it can successfully prosecute cases involving money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
As it stands, the Hawks identified 20 priority cases, which involve money-laundering and terrorist-financing and now working with the private sector.
Commenting on the merger, former senior political reporter and political analyst, Ndaedzo Nethonzhe, said outsourcing private attorneys to prosecute cases related to state capture and other complex financial crimes has been one of the contentious issues in the NPA.
“South Africa, particularly the NPA lacks lawyers that have experience in forensic and financial crimes, because they are unable to have enough staff, they would then need to outsource services.
“It does pose as a risk because these are independent lawyers that may have in some instances have been representing the other side, meaning people who have been accused. Because when you are in the NPA, your interests are not questioned as opposed to being a subcontractor,” he said.
Nethonzhe added that for the NPA to perform its duties without help from the private sector, the department of justice would have to allocate an enormous budget to the unit which was something that can’t be achieved at the moment.
“The NDPP, Shamila Batohi, has raised concern about the lack of financial resources, which ultimately has an impact on human resources because they are unable to employ more people and to employ lawyers who bring special skills like forensic investigations or financial crimes, it requires a lot of money,” he explained.
To make sure that justice is fulfilled, Nethonzhe said a little can be done to make sure that private lawyers contracted by the NPA are not compromised.
“It just means you will have to rely on them upholding the rule of law and also respecting their craft. Because to confidently say that there would be overall protection to safeguard the integrity of the NPA when involving private attorneys, it will be very difficult.
“What can be done in the long term, the NPA must be well equipped to hire people with expertise and have the financial resources to pay them,” Nethonzhe added.
Meanwhile, legal commentator Nthabiseng Dubazana, of Dubazana Attorneys, said what should be established before hiring private attorneys, the NPA has a duty of making sure that there would be no conflict of interest.
“Because if the attorney has represented the accused before in his private capacity, they could be lack of objectivity and there could be bias and such person can be corrupted,” she said.
Dubazana said hiring a private attorney to represent the NPA doesn’t impact public confidence in the system, instead, it shows that the NPA is not waiting for budgets to be approved but they are choosing to be pro-active.
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