South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) needed to learn from  models and mechanisms of good practice in countries such as England, Wales, Japan and Northern Ireland to enhance its prosecutorial accountability so as to improve public trust and confidence, a report by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) states.

The report was released against the backdrop of a criminal justice system plagued by questionable appointments, allegations of factional infighting within the ranks of senior management, unwillingness to prosecute high-profile personalities and public officials, as well a decline in the number of prosecutions.

South Africa, therefore, needed to consider creating an independent oversight body to scrutinise the performance of the NPA, said ISS Governance, Crime and Justice division head Gareth Newham,

“The NPA's ongoing credibility crisis raises the question whether it is timely to explore a dedicated prosecutorial oversight and accountability mechanism for South Africa,”  he said.

“Effective prosecutorial accountability empowers the public and makes prosecutors responsible to citizens for their actions. This is particularly important in a country like South Africa where officials have considerable public authority to decide who to arrest, prosecute, convict or imprison, or to award contracts worth millions to some but not others.

“Greater accountability serves to strengthen rather than weaken prosecutorial independence,” said Newham.

He noted that the NPA was fundamental to the rule of law in South Africa, adding that it was a powerful institution as its independence was guaranteed by the Constitution.  It thus played a critical role in democracy.

Some aspects of the NPA's activities are scrutinised by bodies including Parliament, the Auditor-General, and the National Treasury, but none focus exclusively on the NPA and their staff may lack a detailed understanding of how the NPA works.

The paper explains that other countries have mechanisms such as prosecution service inspectorates, independent complaints offices and prosecutorial review commissions. In England and Wales, the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate seeks to improve the quality of justice through independent inspection and assessment of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). It examines of quality of prosecutorial decisions and highlights where poor performance represents a risk to the public or to the reputation of the prosecution service.

A similar inspectorate in South Africa could provide independent assurances to the public and other accountability bodies – such as parliament and the auditor-general.

Report author Martin Schönteich noted that, since the NPA’s establishment in 1998, it had seen seven acting heads. “There has been a lot of overturn of different leadership and some of that leadership has been quite flawed,” he said.

Further, to address this crisis and “what has really become a systemic weakness in the way the NPA operates, one needs a dedicated oversight and accountability mechanism which scrutinises the organisation.”

“There are a variety of existing mechanisms, which have been tested in the world of criminal justice practice from around the world, that criminal justice systems in South Africa can rule on,” he said.