National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi said there have been no successful prosecutions by the Investigating Directorate since its inception in 2019.
Batohi gave a briefing yesterday following the resignation of the Directorate’s head, Hermione Cronjé.
Media reports alleged that there had been a falling out between Batohi and Cronjé. Batohi has denied this saying she even tried to convince Cronjé to stay when she first talked about resigning.
The Directorate was established in 2019 to strengthen the fight against corruption and to address allegations from commissions of inquiry including the inquiry into state capture .
However, two years and nine months later, Batohi said that no successful prosecutions had been achieved.
‘The sad reality in the current climate is that accused persons will do everything possible to ensure that cases do not proceed to finality, that the state isn’t even able to start leading the evidence on the merits of the case.’
Batohi admitted that there has been a slow movement in prosecutions. ‘Where we are at now – clearly the age of impunity is over. There is no guaranteed impunity anymore and that is really important,’ she said.
Batohi said the NPA and the ID need specialised skills to speed up the pace of their work.