NPA's Batohi backtracks on 'infiltration' claims

The national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi has backtracked on her claims that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has been 'infiltrated' after justice minister Mmamoloko Kubayi summoned her to a meeting on Friday.

The NPA boss caused a stir this week when she said in a series of interviews that the NPA had been infiltrated by unscrupulous prosecutors working in cahoots with criminals to deliberately bungle cases. 

Kubayi told the Sunday Times on Saturday that the claims had worried her so much that she summoned Batohi to an urgent meeting on Friday. She said that in the meeting Batohi backtracked on her claims of infiltration, telling her she had used the wrong word.

“After the interviews of the NDPP, I met her yesterday [Friday] urgently, because if somebody says the NPA is held from doing its work I need to understand. It's my duty as the minister because I would have to advise the president, who would have to do a lot of things if it's indeed the case,” Kubayi said.

“In my discussion with her, which we agreed would have to be clarified, she said it's unfortunate that she used the word 'infiltration'.”

Kubayi said Batohi had explained that she had been inundated with allegations that cases, including high-profile ones, were being deliberately sabotaged. “But what she is worried about is allegations of prosecutors who are working with criminal networks to sabotage cases. So we would have to deal with it case by case.

“So I said to her I will engage the head of state to look at what we can do [to] investigate those individuals. That we will have to do. It's not the entirety of the institution that is affected; it's not really infiltration.”

Kubayi said she told Batohi that she would speak to President Cyril Ramaphosa about her concerns with a view to possibly launching a wide-scale investigation into prosecutors who are accused of working with criminals to bungle cases.

The meeting between Kubayi and Batohi took place just days after the NPA was dealt a blow in the case against former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule when the court ruled that the extradition from the US of his former PA, Moroadi Cholota, was invalid.

This is one of several embarrassing defeats the NPA has suffered in high-profile cases, leading to concerns about the general performance and preparedness of the prosecuting body when going to court.

The NPA recently bungled the rape case against Nigerian televangelist Tim Omotoso, who was acquitted on more than 30 charges of sexual assault.

But Kubayi said it would be unfair to judge the NPA’s performance based on only a few bad cases.

“When you look at it, I think the public outcry is understandable on the point of high-profile cases that are falling apart,” she said. “You have 90% of cases going well and then you have 10% of cases that are not going well. So it's based on the high-profile cases that we have an issue. That's why one of the issues I've said with the NPA in my conversation with the executive is that they need to put mechanisms in place to support those cases to make sure that they don't collapse.

“But you can't say it's a collapse of the NPA when you reflect on two cases and you say they have not done well. The Omotoso case, yes it's unfortunate, that's why I had to ask for a report [and] we are dealing with it. You can't say there was no intervention because when there was concern the team was removed and replaced by another team.”

On the allegations against NPA prosecutors, Kubayi said that when she was appointed as minister of justice she received a call from a public representative who told her that prosecutors were exchanging money with lawyers.

She said she then summoned all provincial directors of public prosecutions and told them that all prosecutors would have to undergo lifestyle audits.

“I held a meeting, called all the provincial teams and all the directors of public prosecutions and I told them I want all of them to go through lifestyle audits; every single prosecutor to go through lifestyle audits.

“So that as the minister, when somebody says your prosecutors are taking money, I can stand with confidence to say, 'No, I've audited them, we've gone through their bank statements, we've gone through their assets, we've gone through their families, no-one is owning something that is outside the norm, and therefore it's not possible.'

“Because sometimes it's allegations that are false; sometimes they could be true.”