Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola announced on Monday that while significant progress in renewing the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has been made, a silo approach in the fight against fraud and corruption has been identified as a weakness in the criminal justice system.

Lamola gave the opening address at the Countering the Corrupt: Reform of the Criminal Justice Administration in South Africa conference, where he said such a gathering was indicative of the fact that there was general consensus that corruption cannot be addressed by government alone. He said civil society, the private sector and academia working with government could be instrumental in effecting various reforms.

He highlighted that government was now in a position to act on the recommendations from the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into allegations of State Capture.

He explained that there were now greater levels of collaboration and coordination between the Investigative Directorate, Asset Forfeiture Unit, the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit, Special Investigating Unit and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation.

In total, the Investigative Directorate has enrolled 32 cases, involving 187 accused individuals who have appeared in court for alleged State capture-related offences.

He said this was not something to be scoffed at, as it was proof that accountability was happening. This was the same work that had led to R12.5-billion being recovered, he added.

He said the reinstatement of the aspirant prosecutors’ programme had seen more than 1 000 new employees brought into the fold over the past three years.

He highlighted that in strengthening the independence and the security of tenure of the incumbents in the Investigative Directorate, the Justice Ministry had a new bill that was currently undergoing internal consultative processes between relevant departments.

He explained that this work built on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s pronouncement in October last year that government would undertake work to implement the recommendations in the judicial commissions’ report.

“In the interim, whilst the consultative processes are underway, we have assigned peace officer powers to the Investigative Directorate. This will enable them to arrest people, take statements, conduct search and seizure operations,” said Lamola.

He highlighted that the NPA and its subsidiaries’ independence must be assessed in terms of structural and operational autonomy.

This was a risk identified first by the Glenister judgment and then again by the Judicial Commission on State Capture, he said.

“Whilst it is true Chapter 9 of our Constitution is where independent entities are housed in our democracy, we are of the view that the independence of an entity like the NPA and its subsidiaries cannot be looked through a simplistic lens of where the entity is housed,” he said.

WHISTLEBLOWING

Lamola paid tribute to all the whistleblowers who had come forward to reveal unethical conduct and corruption in the public and private sectors.

“You are the true embodiment of the famous saying by British philosopher John Stuart Mill: 'Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.’ You are the good people who refused to look on and do nothing,” he said.

He highlighted that the level of reprisal which whistleblowers were being subjected to was proving to be counterintuitive to the laudable goals of whistleblowing, which were in the main to mainstream integrity and expose unethical organisational cultures through detection and protection.

“One of the gaps we have identified is the fact companies or government departments who are implicated by whistleblowers are not held accountable for victimising whistleblowers. The second gap we have identified is how we can transition whistleblowers into witnesses in criminal cases where possible,” he said.