Africa-Press – South-Africa. The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Investigating Directorate (ID) is in a race against time to be legally made permanent.
In October last year, when President Cyril Ramaphosa tabled his “implementation plan” in response to the Zondo Commission’s report, he announced that the ID would be made a permanent body with powers similar to those of the disbanded Scorpions.
At the time, a NPA insider hailed this as a “game changer” for the prosecution of high-level corruption cases.
However, seven months later, and Ramaphosa’s administration is yet to introduce legislation to effect this change.
Presenting the NPA’s budget and annual performance plan (APP) to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on Friday, National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi said they are working with the Department of Justice to finalise the legislation.
“We need the NPA Amendment Bill. We need these amendments to go through as soon as possible. And certainly in this term, in order to establish the ID as a permanent entity with all the requisite criminal investigative powers,” said Batohi.
“If we don’t, the ID will not be able to do the work that we plan to do in the coming year.”
She said this would slow them down.
Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions Anton du Plessis said 122 people had been appointed to the ID in the past year, with a further 138 in the advanced stages of being appointed, but they can’t yet appoint the staff they really need – analysts and criminal investigators – before the legislation is enacted.
“We really need to get that legislation through,” he said.
It is expected that Parliament will rise around April 2024 ahead of next year’s elections.
Eleven months is a short time to process a bill at the best of times. However, MPs are already under pressure to process the bills already before the legislature.
The National Assembly will also have a prolonged “constituency period” from 18 June until 31 August to allow MPs to prepare for the elections. This leaves the legislature with very little time to process the bill before the end of this term.
Ramaphosa established the ID as a temporary structure in March 2019, specifically to investigate corruption-related crimes unearthed by the Zondo Commission and the commissions into the South African Revenue Service and Public Investigation Corporation.
Last week, the committee warned the Department of Justice that it would not pass its budget if it did not provide proper explanations why it changed its targets for the 2023-’24 financial year.
On Thursday morning, before the NPA’s presentation, the department briefed the committee on its targets. The committee didn’t raise further concerns.
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