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Evidence gathered by the Zondo Commission should not only be accessible to the NPA; it should be placed in the public domain to enable ordinary South Africans to hold government criminality to account.

The same principle applies to other judicial commissions held in public, ostensibly for public good, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, whose amnesty committee was made up of a panel of judges.

By making such evidence available to prosecutors, scholars and interested others, the country would build sorely-needed extra layers of accountability, that would have resulted in more prosecutions of apartheid-era killers – as the TRC recommended – and more criminal accountability for the State Capture era.

Where evidence collected by commissions relates to confidential matters, such as people’s banks accounts, this information can be redacted prior to it being placed in the public domain.

The spat now playing out publicly between the NPA, which insists its access to Zondo Commission records is being obstructed, and the Department of Justice, which strenuously denies being obstructive, brings the NPA’s independence from political meddling back into sharp focus.

The last NPA head to complain of political interference, Adv Vusi Pikoli, who lamented that he’d been ordered not to follow the advice of the TRC on further investigations, was ultimately fired by former President Mbeki. 

It is not just a massive waste of governments’ energy and resources to run judicial commissions to gather evidence, only to hide the evidence from investigators and other interested parties; it also erodes citizens’ confidence in the State to do the right thing. 

And it undermines the very purpose of commissions: To collect evidence of alleged wrongdoing to enable the commission to reach well-founded conclusions and make appropriate recommendations to be followed through by appropriate state agencies.

Former Chief Justice Zondo submitted the final State Capture Commission report nearly two years ago to a President who made a firm commitment that implicated people would face the law without fear or favour. President Ramaphosa said that the NPA's independence, which had itself come under scrutiny in commission would be protected, and that State Capture cases would be prosecuted in earnest.

This week delivered two shocking facts. First, that the NPA has not been given unfettered access to the Zondo Commission evidence and, second, that it has taken the NPA nearly two years to make their unhappiness known.

These facts require urgent explanation and clarification from the President.

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Issued by Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament