The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has hit back at “lies” about its apparent lack of action in prosecuting PPE tender corruption cases referred by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
The NPA on Wednesday came out with fighting talk, saying it has already scored 15 convictions out of 16 cases related to Covid-19 corruption which have been finalised by courts.
NPA spokesperson Isaac Dhludhlu said 45 cases “were closed after investigation and 101 accused persons are appearing in 45 criminal cases in courts across the country” for crimes related to Covid-19 procurement.
“Lies of those who are saying there are no arrests are exposed by these cases,16 cases have been finalised with only one acquittal,” Dhludhlu said.
He said most of the cases were “not prosecution or trial-ready and need some investigation by law enforcement”.
The NPA has come in for criticism after a report by the SIU on the multibillion-rand PPE tender scandal which was made public this week showed how government officials and crooked business people inflated prices and looted the state at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The SIU is seeking to recoup R2.1bn lost through the PPE tender scandal. It has so far made 386 referrals to the NPA for criminal prosecutions.
But Dhludhlu said 10 referrals could amount to one case because it could be incidents that are linked or people working together.
He said the SIU's approach on securing and presenting evidence is vastly different to theirs in criminal cases. He said the NPA still has to conduct more investigation even when presented with evidence by the SIU.
“With SIU, the onus is on the balance of probabilities while we have to prove cases beyond a reasonable doubt. Investigating teams would therefore need to investigate the matters further,” he said.
“Kindly further note that SIU would refer files to NPA only where they identified criminality. NPA would then register the files, peruse them and send them to either DPCI [Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation] or SAPS for further investigations and with queries if there are... The police would only register the file to be a case docket when they identified an offence if there is a suspect and he/ she is linked to the crime.
“They would then proceed with investigations so we can have proper evidence to be presented in court. We are governed by the law of evidence and must work according to the rules and regulations thereof.”
Dhludhlu said the NPA has enough prosecutors to work on the matters referred to them as they have also made recruitment.
“NPA has also paired prosecutors, so they work in a team. It must also be noted that complex commercial crimes take longer to be investigated,” he added.
Head of justice and violence prevention at the Institute for Security Studies, Gareth Newham, said the NPA doesn’t appear to have a clear strategy.
He said priority has to be placed on cases that should be easy pickings for criminal prosecutions for fraud in PPE tender scandal.
“The prosecuting authority is trying to prosecute all crimes, when they investigate an individual who has committed fraud and corruption, they keep on adding charges so they end up with a large case against the individual which will take forever,” Newham said.
Dr Guy Lamb, a criminologist at Stellenbosch University, said: “There's a lot of work that needs to be done, they're [NPA and Hawks] under- resourced and overworked both in the prosecuting and investigative arrangement.”
Hawks spokesperson Philani Nkwalase had not responded to Sowetan's questions by the time of going to print last night.
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