The Prosecuting Authority needs an independent director to regain public trust after a number of controversial cases, experts say.
|||The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) must urgently appoint a “robustly independent director”, as a first step to win back public trust, constitutional experts have said.
They pointed out that the NPA had been involved in a number of controversially handled cases lately, which was eroding people’s confidence in the justice system.
Lawson Naidoo, executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, said that after the number of failed court cases and “suspicions of political meddling” in NPA affairs, “people are beginning to lose faith in the justice process. And this will be very damaging in the long term”.
Naidoo said public confidence in the impartiality of the NPA had been eroded in the wake of the J Arthur Brown, Andries Tatane and Glynnis Breytenbach rulings.
In the case of Ficksburg teacher and activist Tatane, fault appeared to lie close to the NPA, he said. In March seven policemen were acquitted in the Ficksburg Magistrate’s Court for Tatane’s murder. Tatane died after suffering injuries at a protest on April 13, 2011.
“We saw on television screens (Tatane) being shot in the street,” said Naidoo.
“Perceptions play a huge role here .... (it) casts a very negative light on the NPA.”
Naidoo said the cases of Breytenbach and Brown had also harmed the NPA’s reputation. Last month an NPA disciplinary hearing ruled in favour of suspended senior prosecutor Breytenbach, allowing her to return to work. Breytenbach, who was suspended in April last year, was cleared of all 15 charges against her.
On May 15 former Fidentia boss Brown was given a suspended prison sentence and fined R150 000 after being convicted on two counts of fraud.
IN 2007, Brown was charged with 192 counts of fraud, theft and money laundering.
Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos agreed that when a perception is created in the public mind that justice is not applied fairly, the public can “take the law into their own hands”. De Vos said just the perception of unfairness is enough to foster a culture of corruption, “because there is a perception that you won’t get prosecuted if you know the right people”.
But Naidoo said a decrease in confidence in the fairness and effectiveness of the justice system was in no way caused solely by NPA failures.
Daily “frustrations with ineffective policing” were also to blame. These frustrations could have deadly real world effects, like vigilante killings that had occurred in Khayelitsha. “In the end this all undermines the key principle of the rule of law,” he said.
But he added that negative perceptions of effectiveness of the organisation were not always its fault, citing the case of Jonathan Davids, one of two suspects arrested for the rape and murder of Anene Booysen.
Davids was released last month and cleared of all charged against him, despite being denied bail at an earlier hearing.
“If the evidence isn’t there, of course they (the NPA) musn’t prosecute,” said Naidoo. He added that in the case of Davids, it appeared that the police had overstated the strength of its case.
This left the NPA with the embarrassing task of throwing out the case, although they had not collected the original evidence, which was done by the police.
jan.cronje@inl.co.za
Cape Times