Conference on the decline of the criminal justice system: An alternative to the sinking ship of justice
18 October 2021
AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit today hosted a conference on the decline of the criminal justice system at the AfriForum Teater. Adv. Gerrie Nel, Prof. Koos Malan, and Dr Llewelyn Curlewis were speakers at the conference. Adv. Nel highlighted concrete examples that indicate the decline of the criminal justice system as well as the role of the Private Prosecution Unit in rectifying this, Dr Curlewis discussed the decline of the prison system, as well as the deteriorating independence of the judiciary and Prof. Malan discussed solutions from a constitutional perspective.
Adv. Nel came to the conclusion that the ship of justice as it currently exists is unsalvageable. “However, AfriForum has created a unique and exciting capability to privately prosecute. We use the skillset in our office to force the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the SAPS to do their duty and we have had amazing success in various matters. Therefore, we would like to present solutions on how to rescue the sunken ship of justice by developing the law to allow people to, in the future, in all matters have the option of electing to privately prosecute.”
Adv. Nel discussed cases from when he was still a prosecutor at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) that is still dragging, such as the case of Shaun Abrahams withdrawing the criminal matter against Ngcobo Jiba, as well as cases that the Private Prosecution Unit deals with daily. Adv. Nel discussed various examples of the Unit’s letters to the NPA and the SAPS and their nonsensical answers thereto. He pointed to the fact that the Head of the NPA, Adv. Shamila Batohi is prosecuting Ace Magashule, but fails to prosecute political figures such as Fikile Mbalula (against whom AfriForum laid criminal charges of corruption), and EFF-leader Julius Malema (on the On Point-matter). “These are merely two of the politically driven decisions that the NPA has taken regarding prosecution. This points to the fact that the NPA are either dancing to their masters’ voice or don’t have the capacity or knowledge to prosecute cases of corruption.”
Adv. Nel also announced a case in which the Unit has been involved since 2019, because the NPA has failed to prosecute due to apparent political reasons. André Fourie was falsely accused of making a racist comment. He lost his job as a result thereof and consequently laid a complaint against the person who made the accusation. In this matter the NPA indicated that it is not in the interest of justice to issue a nolle prosequi certificate.