Africa-Press – South-Africa. The establishment of a Chapter 9 integrity commission aimed at preventing rampant corruption is not under consideration by the Cabinet, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has told Parliament.
On Tuesday, Lamola was in the National Council of Province for a question-and-answer session. He was quizzed on the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) ability to prosecute state capture cases and improve the country’s courts.
“Regarding the creation of a Chapter 9 integrity commission or institution, the Zondo Commission’s recommendation is being considered by the whole government and when the president reports to Parliament, he will be able to respond to some of these issues. I can state now that this integrity commission that is being proposed is not one of the considerations we are looking into,” he said.
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Lamola said the government is looking at a multi-disciplinary structure that is able to align with the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
“The final report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture in the public sector, including organs of state, will contain a number of recommendations which can broadly be classified as criminal related where it refers to investigations and prosecutions, administrative related when they deal with capacity practices and other steps to be taken,” he said.
Civil rights group Accountability Now has on several occasions proposed another Chapter 9 institution to investigate and prosecute allegations of grand corruption.
Last year, advocate Paul Hoffman of Accountability Now told Parliament: “The Hawks are not up to the task at hand when it comes to countering grand corruption. Their structural and operational lack of security of tenure of office is the underlying problem, which is exacerbated by executive instead of parliamentary control and oversight of their duties.”
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Briefing the Joint Constitutional Review Committee, Parliament’s legal services found that establishing another Chapter 9 institution to deal with corruption is unnecessary as it is already “addressed and legislated for”.
Furthermore, Lamola said his department established an internal task team to consider the reports of the Zondo Commission and its recommendations.
“All the recommendations have been analysed, and a full set of those which fall under my mandate has been identified. With regards to criminal-related recommendations, the National Prosecuting Authority, together with the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations (DPCI) established an integrated multi-disciplinary task force to coordinate the response to such recommendations and findings.
“It includes senior representatives of the DPCI as well as the heads and additional representatives from the Asset Forfeiture Unit, the Investigative Directorate of the NPA and the Specialised Commercial Crimes unit within the NPA. The task force focuses on ensuring a coordinated response to expedite and successful prosecutions of the matters,” he said.
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