The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has told the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) that cases referred to it by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) were sometimes misleading and create misalignment.
Briefing Scopa on Tuesday, deputy national director of public prosecutions Adv Rodney de Kock said there was a close monitoring of SIU cases, adding that since 2014, about 25 SIU matters had been finalised.
“Some of the constraints we have are cases often have to be closed without prosecution as witnesses or evidence are no longer available due to a long time lapse.
“Referrals of individuals connected to one matter are misleading, difficult to follow up. Sometimes there is confusion to the different parts to an investigation and the number of individuals involved in an investigation.
“The SIU referral process of matters based on suspects rather than cases involving the finding of criminality creates a misalignment in respect of the cases generated...There is misalignment on what the SIU finds and what a proper investigation may find.
“The point here is you can't just take an SIU report and ask the question of how many people have been prosecuted but rather the investigation [by the NPA] often reveals more names than contained in the SIU report,” De Kock said.
He said prosecutions and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) investigators deal with facts contained in the case, adding that those implicated in SIU reports do not always emerge as suspects in the criminal investigations.
De Kock was joined by national director of public prosecutions Shamila Batohi to present an update to Scopa on the cases referred to it by the SIU.
Since 2014, the SIU has referred 1,515 cases to the NPA and of those, 41 were before the courts, 41 guilty verdicts obtained with the NPA declining 253 for prosecution.
These include the more recent PPE cases relating to Covid-19 contracts and also cases emanating from the Zondo commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture.
Batohi said the work from the SIU was but a fraction of the corruption the NPA was dealing with.
She said according to the SIU Act, its mandate was to refer cases to the NPA.
“Its mandate is to provide investigations primarily for the purpose of civil recovery and so the police and NPA are mandated to conduct criminal investigations,” she said.
She said the burden of proof in civil investigations was on the balance of probability while in criminal matters, proof is beyond reasonable doubt, which was a much higher standard of proof.
“Most of the matters referred to NPA by the SIU creates the impression they are ready for prosecutions but that's not the case. In as much as work of the SIU is important in terms of the link they create, the criminal investigations that must follow is important.
“NPA forwards these matters to DPCI and in previous meetings, the SIU is now forwarding matters to the DPCI to expedite matters. We do feel legislative changes are required to address this so referrals to investigative agencies become the norm,” she said.
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