Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Anti-Corruption Task Team recorded 35 court cases involving 180 accused between April and December.
With the gains made in the Investigating Directorate’s 32 state capture-related cases involving 187 accused, more than R12.5 billion has been recovered so far, according to Justice Minister Ronald Lamola.
Lamola was speaking at a hybrid webinar on Monday, themed “Countering the Corrupt – Reform of the Criminal Justice Administration in South Africa”.
“The impact of the performance of law enforcement agencies can be felt in all areas of our democracy. When law enforcement agencies fail to perform, we are judged as a country by international financial institutions such as ratings agencies, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and so on,” he said.
“Capacitation of these entities, including the NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) has received the much-needed injection of funds to assist it in achieving their mandates. The impact of grey-listing by the FATF, [and] we are soon to receive the final outcomes [of that], will have a dire effect on our economy and ability to raise funding in the international markets. This is where coordination and collaboration are needed to work together, not only as the justice cluster, but with the economic cluster as well.”
According to Lamola, a new bill is “undergoing internal consultative processes” and will ensure the “independence and the security of tenure of the incumbents in the [Investigating Directorate] are strengthened”.
He added:
In addition, Lamola said his department had “made significant progress in renewing” the NPA.
He added that in addressing a “weak point” of working in silos, there have been greater levels of collaboration and coordination between the Investigative Directorate, Asset Forfeiture Unit, Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit, Special Investigating Unit and the Hawks.
Lamola said comparative research was being conducted on the incentivisation of whistleblowers, which seeks to address the gaps in the Public Disclosures Act.
“One of the gaps we have identified is the fact that companies or government departments who are implicated by whistleblowers are not held accountable for victimising whistleblowers. The second gap we have identified is how we can transition whistleblowers into witnesses in criminal cases where possible,” Lamola said.
According to the minister, “whistleblowing is an integral part of any anti-corruption framework”.
“The level of reprisal which whistleblowers are being subjected to is proving to be counterintuitive to the laudable goals of whistleblowing, which are, in the main, to mainstream integrity and expose unethical organisational cultures through detection and protection,” Lamola said.
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