The Christmas jingles have hit shopping malls, but 2025 is far from over. Crucial criminal justice system matters are outstanding ― from appointing prosecutions boss Shamila Batohi’s successor to naming a new asset forfeiture unit head and deciding who should lead the Hawks permanently.
That the criminal justice system is an omnishambles is becoming clear at the Madlanga commission and parliamentary inquiry. Blue lights, affairs and retailer bags stuffed with cash jostle for attention with inarticulate police generals, blame games and politicking.
A parliamentary reply reveals the hard realities: over the past decade the South African Police Service (SAPS) logged a total of 2,045,334 criminal dockets but solved just 781,177, according to acting police minister Firoz Cachalia. The numbers do not account for all the times police turned away complainants, but help explain low public trust in the SAPS.
With legislative initiatives to tighten private gun ownership under way, Cachalia said the SAPS lost 3,433 of its guns over five years to March 2024. Details of who lost the weapons and where “cannot be disclosed as this may reveal specific vulnerabilities, which may be exploited, thereby posing additional risks to the SAPS and its members”, the parliamentary reply read.
Amid this messiness, the Hawks have been without a permanently appointed boss for six months; it has long been known that Godfrey Lebeya would retire by June 2025. Meanwhile, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) asset forfeiture head Ouma Rabaji-Rasethaba reached retirement age in September 2025 and had to leave, handing over to an acting placeholder.
Instead of four NPA deputies, only three are in place as a vacancy remains after Rodney de Kock’s death in January 2025. Of the remaining three deputy NPA heads only one is permanently appointed. That’s a lot of acting for a crucial institution when it comes to public trust in South Africa’s democracy.
No deputy national director of public prosecutions has made the shortlist for next NPA boss. But Menzi Simelane has. His previous appointment as national director was set aside in October 2012 when the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld an earlier Supreme Court of Appeal judgment.
Key was the Ginwala inquiry’s concern over his integrity and honesty during another prosecutions boss’s fitness for office probe. “Ignoring prima facie indications of dishonesty is wholly inconsistent with the end sought, namely the appointment of a national director who is sufficiently conscientious and has enough credibility to do this important job effectively,” said the Constitutional Court of Simelane’s appointment process.
The CV Simelane submitted for this round of applications for NPA head lists his 2010-11 stint, saying he “was responsible for the overall performance of the NPA and made recommendations to the minister … on all matters relating to the NPA or the administration of justice as a whole”. He also lists eight years as special adviser to then minister Lindiwe Sisulu who was at the heart of the national executive.
Public comment on the six candidates is possible until Friday. The advisory panel, chaired by the justice minister, aims to hold interviews on December 10-11, if not distracted by, among others, the first ANC national general council in a decade. The ANC’s mid-term review is due to be held in the same week.
On paper, the panel has until January 6 to give a name to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who will announce the next national director. That would leave just days until January 6, Batohi’s last day in office before the mandatory retirement age of 65.
How these successions are being run does not signal seriousness about governance and casts an unmerry cloud over the commitment to deal with criminal justice dysfunction that is unfolding in the two inquiries and the earlier Zondo commission.
As the jingles play, justice remains on hold.
• Merten is a veteran political journalist specialising in parliament and governance.
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