The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has developed even more teeth in combating corruption on all levels.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law of the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Act to establish the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption a permanent and adequately empowered entity.
This groundbreaking development will create a permanent prosecution-led unit, within the National Prosecuting Authority, with criminal investigative powers to pursue the most complex forms of corruption and associated crimes, in line with its mandate.
It will also tackle cases emanating from state capture, which had, up to now, been lagging.
Advocate Mthunzi Mhaga, of the NPA, said the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption accords with international best practice, to protect anti-corruption entities from political interference.
It also gives the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption the critical powers and resources it needs to succeed with the tried and tested prosecution-led model that has been utilised effectively in the past.
The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption replaces the Investigating Directorate (ID) that was established in 2019. The mandate of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption is to investigate, and where appropriate, institute criminal proceedings and carry out necessary functions incidental to investigations.
It will also be able to institute criminal proceedings, relating to serious, high-profile or complex corruption or commercial or financial crime cases arising from the recommendations of commissions of inquiry; referred to the Investigating Director by the national director.
Despite its pivotal role in leading South Africa’s criminal justice response to high-level corruption, the ID was statutorily not a permanent entity within the NPA. The ID was established by proclamation and the executive had the power to amend or revoke such a proclamation.
Mhaga said the other key constraining factor for the previous ID was that it did not possess the required criminal investigative powers. It had to rely on a patchwork of seconded staff from various partner entities who could be recalled at any time, and whose line-function managers remained in the partner entities, outside the ID.
The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption will now have the ability to recruit permanent criminal investigators with full police powers, who work solely under the direct leadership of the Investigating Director and teams of prosecutors, together with forensic experts and analysts.
“This will give full effect to the prosecution-led model and will enable the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption to recruit and retain the specialised skills to deliver on its mandate. This will also allow the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit to work closely with the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption moving forward, to institute asset recovery interventions, side by side with prosecutions, considering that money is a key driver of corruption,” Mhaga explained.
The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption will also collaborate with the private sector, as appropriate, especially in the fields of digital forensics and evidence collection and presentation.
The NPA is part of the innovative Presidential Public Private Partnership initiative which is working to create a digital evidence unit specialising in the identification, collection, analysis, and presentation of digital evidence in criminal cases.
Mhaga said this was critical in complex and high-profile investigations against corruption and related crimes.
This will exponentially enhance the capability of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption to deliver on its mandate.
Linked to the process of developing this amendment to the NPA Act is the important aspect of enhancing the NPA’s financial and operational independence.
This crucial aspect was highlighted by a number of civil society organisations during the public deliberations on the Bill. Prosecutorial independence is essential for the NPA to effectively prosecute and hold accountable both political figures and private sector leaders who engage in corrupt practices.
This structural and operational autonomy reinforces the rule of law and is crucial for bolstering public trust and confidence in the prosecuting authority. It’s also an important obligation under various international and regional treaty requirements and key judgments by the Constitutional Court.
In order to give effect to the minister’s commitment during the parliamentary deliberations on the NPA Amendment Bill, the NPA is collaborating with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to advance legislation that anchors the NPA’s financial and operational independence in law by January 2025.
Mhaga said the NPA would, in the coming months, prioritise the resourcing and capacitation of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption to enhance its ability to effectively and speedily deliver on its important mandate.
During the recent NPA media round table, director of the NPA, Shamila Batohi, expressed her disappointment about the lack of speed in dealing with state capture prosecutions.
She said: “It's only with regard to state capture cases that I thought we would've been further down the line”. But once formally established, the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption, enabled by its powers and partnerships, is expected to become a game-changer in the prosecution of state capture cases.
Pretoria News