Public Protector says threats against investigators in her office increasing

Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka says corruption suspects are becoming increasingly brazen, even threatening investigators.

She said her office has been forced to beef up security and conduct threat assessments, following a rise in following a rise in threats.

Gcaleka was briefing the Parliament’s Justice Committee about its annual performance plan and the budget.

Gcaleka said they’ve seen an improvement in their investigating capacity and are even investigating matters referred to her office by the Auditor-General.

She said funds from the Criminal Assets Recovery Account (CARA) are also helping to source experts and balance their funding.

But she said their investigators are now facing more threats.

"With all these cases here that we are investigating, I must mention that there’s also an increase in threats to our investigators who are actually investigating."

Gcaleka said they’ve been forced to beef up security.

"Those who are committing corruption are actually becoming more brazen, so we had to increase the security at our offices to do assessments on individual investigators."

Gcaleka also noted that they’ve seen a recurrence in terms of offences and how new administrations merely continue the pattern.