‘We can’t prosecute ourselves out of corruption’ – NPA head

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'We can't prosecute ourselves out of corruption' - NPA head
'We can't prosecute ourselves out of corruption' - NPA head

Africa-Press – South-Africa. National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi says law enforcement agencies cannot prosecute the country out of corruption.

Batohi said the root cause of corruption in the various spheres of the government was a lack of ethics and good governance.

She said the only way the country could genuinely rid itself of the massive corruption that steals from the poor through a lack of service delivery is to reduce opportunities for corruption.

“The government is good at having strategies, but we do not implement them. Together in law enforcement, we are doing a lot. We are working very hard at the reactive side of trying to deal with corruption.

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“Let us face it, the root cause of corruption in the spheres of government is because of a lack of good governance and ethical leadership. That is where we need to focus. We are not going to investigate and prosecute ourselves out of corruption,” Batohi said.

The head of the National Prosecuting Authority was speaking at a local government ethical leadership event hosted by the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in Pretoria on Wednesday.

She said corruption had robbed the country of the most basic services and made ordinary citizens criminals because of regular protests leading to property destruction and likely arrests.

Batohi said the government’s inability to prevent corruption led to a reactive approach to a systematic problem affecting local government.

Statistics showed that the bulk of the country’s municipalities were failing to provide basic services.

“How regularly do we have service delivery protests? Why are people so dissatisfied? The intelligence shows us that 90% of protests relate to service delivery. We would all be taking to the streets if we did not have water and sanitation. That is what corruption has done in this country.

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“The inability to deal with service delivery lands upon law enforcement, and so we are required to deal with protests and arrest people. We cannot make criminals out of ordinary South Africans protesting because we are not delivering services,” she said.

One of the most critical issues affecting governance was political interference, Batohi added.

“We need systems and processes to ensure that the opportunities for being corrupt are reduced. Let us face it, one of the serious issues has been political interference. How can we ensure we have the right leaders? You must fast-track the procurement Bill because it will help with transparency.

She said despite the slow pace by law enforcement agencies on some criminal cases, the wheels of justice were turning.

“We are doing everything we can, and the wheels of justice are turning. They were creaking, let us admit it. We are now seeing the fruits of our efforts. The wheels of justice are going to turn faster,” Batohi said.

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