Justice minister says steps are in place to deal with prosecutors who jeopardise state's case in courts
Last week, the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Batohi claimed the National Prosecuting Authority had been 'infiltrated' by corrupt prosecutors, a choice of word she reportedly later retracted in conversation with the minister.
Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, Instagram economic_cluster
CAPE TOWN - Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said that steps are afoot to deal with prosecutors who jeopardise the state’s case in the courts.
It comes after the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi last week claimed the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had been “infiltrated” by corrupt prosecutors, a choice of word she reportedly later retracted in conversation with the minister.
On Tuesday, ActionSA’s Athol Trollip pressed the minister to respond to its letter for a removal process to begin against Batohi, saying the bungling of state capture cases in particular, validates its demand for a Parliamentary inquiry.
“The list of prosecutorial disasters continue to grow, most damning, however, is the NPA’s failure to secure an extradition of the Gupta brothers nearly a decade after the Gupta leaks."
READ: Political parties split over calls to fire NPA boss Batohi
But Kubayi said the NPA was not solely to blame for cases failing in the courts.
She said action was being taken to determine whether the authority had been incapacitated from doing its work.
“What we’ve received as feedback is there are individuals that are going through investigation and possible charges. Others have already started the process where they’ve been involved in compromising cases. This is not a broad problem of the entirety of the organisation that will require an inquiry.”