LAWSON NAIDOO | Major shake-up needed in appointments to top justice jobs

Amid official talk of “rebranding and repositioning” the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) after damaging testimony before the Madlanga commission involving its former head, Andrea Johnson, attention should not be diverted from the crucial broader reforms needed in South Africa’s national anti-corruption and prosecutions architecture.

The review of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act, now under way, must include term limits, published criteria for appointments, and, crucially, a transparent public appointment process across the senior leadership, from the national director of public prosecutions (NDPP), deputy NDPPs and provincial prosecution heads to the Idac head.

For NPA executive leaders, who exercise significant public power, term limits are important to ensure those positions do not turn into jobs for life. It is part of the constitutional checks and balances toolkit. The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) proposes seven-year term limits to ensure stability in office while allowing sufficient time to implement reforms where necessary.

However, the NPA legislative and policy reforms must go further. While these should include the functional separation of budget and operational reporting lines, transparent and independently administered processes for the appointment of the NPA senior leadership — whose job criteria must go beyond the current “fit and proper” test — are crucial.

While the review of the NPA Act is a longer-term initiative, the appointment of an acting Idac head, and subsequently a permanent boss, are opportunities for the state to show its commitment to accountability and transparency, as the justice minister has publicly pledged to rebuild the justice system and restore confidence.

With the appointment of an acting head of Idac imminent, Casac calls for a process that can inspire confidence in the appointee’s competence, integrity and independence at this crucial moment, given the damning allegations that Idac has manipulated its case management and investigation processes for unlawful ends.

However, any acting Idac appointment must be time-bound — it cannot be a long-term substitute for identifying a permanent head. Lessons must be learnt from Johnson’s appointment in 2022. It was announced, without any public process, some three months after Hermione Cronje’s resignation in the wake of sustained but ultimately unsuccessful calls for the allocation of adequate resources and specialist forensic and accountancy skills.

Casac urges President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish a suitably qualified independent advisory panel to select the next permanent Idac head. This should include a clear set of job and candidate criteria, an open call for nominations and applications, public scrutiny of shortlisted candidates and public interviews. The president should explain why the candidate was selected, rather than just announce the appointment.

While a transparent appointment process alone cannot guarantee good performance or prevent misconduct in office, it offers an objective basis for leadership selection and also reduces perceptions of political interference.

As the public debate on Idac and the state’s anti-corruption fight continues, transparent appointments are central to reform, but so are integrity safeguards and institutional capacity.

Vetting is no silver bullet to ensure integrity in office, nor are lifestyle audits, which remain confidential and locked away from public scrutiny. Johnson would have been vetted given her previous roles as deputy NDPP, NPA national organised crime co-ordinator and in the Scorpions before the unit’s disbandment in 2009.

Experience across South Africa’s criminal justice system demonstrates how weak and opaque appointment processes are a recurring source of institutional instability

Idac, South Africa’s dedicated entity to fight “serious, high-profile or complex corruption or commercial or financial crime cases”, has filled only 146 of its 212 posts, effectively a 31% vacancy rate. Similarly underresourced are the Hawks, where the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) noted 3,000 vacant specialist forensic and auditing posts in its report that led to South Africa’s greylisting in February 2023, alongside inadequate measures against terror financing and lack of financial crime, money-laundering and corruption convictions.

Experience across South Africa’s criminal justice system demonstrates how weak and opaque appointment processes are a recurring source of institutional instability.

Since 1998, only one NPA boss has completed a full term — Shamila Batohi, who reached mandatory retirement age in January 2026 after seven years. The pattern extends beyond the NPA. Within intelligence, the State Security Agency (SSA) has been operating for almost three years now without a permanently appointed director-general, after previous incumbent Thembi Majola left at short notice in November 2023.

The experience of the SAPS points in the same direction. George Fivaz, whose term ended in January 2000, remains the only permanent post-1994 national police commissioner to have completed his term.

The immediate test is whether the acting Idac appointment is accompanied by published criteria and reasons. The longer-term test is whether the permanent appointment is made through an independent advisory process and whether the NPA Act review entrenches fixed non-renewable terms, office-specific criteria and transparent appointments throughout the senior leadership. Rebranding cannot rebuild public confidence. Rules capable of outlasting individual officeholders can.

• Naidoo is executive secretary of Casac