DA to request meeting with NDPP Adv Batohi

1 February 2019

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes that today marks the first day in office for the new National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Adv. Shamila Batohi.

It must be the urgent priority of the new NDPP to address the crisis of state capture. State capture has hollowed out our government and destroyed the institutions and entities meant to support the state. State capture, proudly brought to South Africans by a failing ANC government, has the potential to bring us to financial collapse and economic ruin.

Recent weeks have seen the Estina dairy farm matter being withdrawn and charges against former president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane abandoned. This means that, despite the availability of an abundance of evidence, public as well as otherwise there is not even so much as a single State Capture matter currently in the dock, let alone convictions.

Tackling state capture head-on involves holding to account some of the most powerful players in government. This includes former president Jacob Zuma and the members of the Gupta family, current cabinet members such as Minister of Environmental Affairs, Nomvula Mokonyane, and possibly members of the president Cyril Ramaphosa’s own family, who have admitted to receiving money from the unethical and corrupt Bosasa.

This is the difficult task that now faces the new NDPP, and she has to do this with practically every mechanism and gear of the failing ANC government stacked against her. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has been hollowed out by a succession of captured NDPP’s and needs to be rebuilt almost from scratch. Fortunately, it can still draw on a great many talented and very hard-working prosecutors who have stayed in their positions because of their fierce dedication to seeing justice done and the rule of law upheld. The new NDPP will have to improve conviction rates, fill vacancies, and appoint men and women with the necessary independence and integrity into senior management positions.

The DA will request a meeting with Adv. Batohi at the earliest opportunity to discuss these and other matters related to the NPA.

We wish Adv. Batohi well in this monumental task. She has the power to change South Africa for the better, and we hope she will rise to the occasion. The days when a compromised NPA that failed to execute its constitutional mandate must be left behind us.

We will however hold her to the same high standards that we held her predecessors. South Africans deserve an independent NPA which will show no fear or favour when it comes to holding to account those who believe themselves to be above the law. The DA wants to build one South Africa for All who live in it. In this South Africa nobody will be above the law, no matter how important or powerful they may think they are.

Issued by Glynnis Breytenbach - DA Shadow Minister of Justice, 1 February 2019