Endemic and systemic corruption in South Africa requires a well-trained, seasoned and specialist army, not a cohort of wet-behind-the-ears new recruits to our gutted prosecution service which now has a shambolic staff complement of a mere 6,000 personnel.
If South Africa is going to get the lights back on, the trains running again, service delivery in general on track, and the economy growing in job-creating fashion, it is a vital prerequisite that the reform of the capacity of the criminal justice administration to deal with serious corruption be given precedence in the legislative programme of Parliament this year.
The impunity of the politically well-connected must end. It is only in this way that business confidence and trust in government can be restored. Without trust and confidence, much-needed new investment will not materialise. Tax collection will wane and greater hardships will be our national fate.
The government knows that it is imperative to reform the existing system, in which a 10-years-plus backlog of corruption cases has built up during the worst of the State Capture period. Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, after delivering his report on State Capture, remarked that “an army of prosecutors” will be needed.
Endemic and systemic corruption in South Africa does indeed require a well-trained, seasoned and specialist army, not a cohort of wet-behind-the-ears new recruits to our gutted prosecution service which now has a shambolic staff complement of a mere 6,000 personnel.
The President, in his State of the Nation Address, announced that the intention of the Cabinet is to make the Investigating Directorate (ID) of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) a permanent feature of the NPA. He doubled down in his newsletter of 13 February 2023 in which he said:
“As we announced in the State of the Nation Address last week, we are about to take yet another important step forward by making the Investigating Directorate a permanent entity within the NPA. This is so that it can deepen its collaboration with other entities in the criminal justice system and enrol more cases in the courts.
“Consultations are under way on the legislation to give effect to this and to prescribe its powers and safeguard its independence. This also has implications for its funding and operational capacity.
“Currently, the Investigating Directorate’s investigators are seconded from the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the Hawks. Once it’s made permanent, the Investigating Directorate will be able to improve the capacity of its existing team of specialist ...