The state capture commission’s top lawyer has called for greater independence and more funding for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to combat corruption in multiple sectors including local government, infrastructure and law enforcement.
Advocate Paul Pretorius, who headed the Zondo commission’s legal team and is now a National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) consultant, emphasised the importance of independent law enforcement agencies and more funding to combat the scourge of corruption.
The commission, which concluded its work in 2022, uncovered extensive evidence of state capture in private-public sector relationships, centralised procurement and financial misappropriation.
Despite the commission’s recommendations, public procurement issues persisted and whistle-blower protection remained inadequate, Pretorius said. Sectors affected by organised crime syndicates included local government, infrastructure and law enforcement.
Pretorius was delivering the keynote address at a workshop titled “What Now Since the State Capture Commission?” hosted by the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac) and the Public Affairs Research Institute in Johannesburg on Friday.
“The law enforcement agencies cannot be controlled by the very executive that might have to be subject to the investigation. And that is the position today... Secondly, in relation to policy, the law enforcement agencies must have that independence in relation to their budget,” he said.
Pretorius and fellow senior counsel Matthew Chaskalson have been appointed as NPA consultants to lead prosecutions related to state capture cases.
The EFF has criticised the appointments because Pretorius and Chaskalson were evidence leaders of the commission, which was led by former chief justice Raymond Zondo.
In his address, Pretorius highlighted the Investigating Directorate’s (ID’s) capacity constraints, with only 22 investigators compared with more than 100 in the past. The ID is now a permanent unit in the NPA.
It is empowered to investigate and prosecute high-level and complex cases of corruption, including common law and statutory offences. These include commercial crimes such as fraud, forgery, uttering and theft. It also deals with referrals from public commissions of inquiry such as the Public Investment Corporation and SA Revenue Service inquiries.
“The law enforcement agencies can’t be controlled by the very executive that might have to be subjected to their investigations. That’s the position today,” he said.
“If the NPA is to rescue its image, which is under attack, it must be seen to demand. It must have the backing of civil society and it must demand what it needs, and there can be no reason for it not to.
“You cannot run an Investigating Directorate that is supposed to successfully investigate, and [that] it has to investigate from scratch and prosecute hundreds of cases related to state capture with 22 investigators is just not possible.”
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