The self-indulgent private fitness center Shaun Abrahams was so proud to point out off the final time I used to be on this workplace six years in the past is gone. The kitchen is again. The workplace of the NDPP is a lot brisker, much less masculine, the partitions painted a delicate blue and lined with South African regulation studies.
‘We needed to make it lighter, more positive’ Batohi explains to me as she settles in for our interview. She has been reticent about doing in-depth interviews with journalists for the first few years of her tenure however now that there is recognisable motion on high-profile state seize circumstances she is prepared to speak.
To admire what Batohi has been occupied with for the final 4 years let me take you again to 2016 after I was final on this workplace deep in the rabbit warren of the VGM constructing in Silverton.
Shaun Abrahams and his eyebrows have been the topic of the nation’s amusement and ire, he was being mercilessly mocked, he was at the helm of an overwhelmingly factionalised and damaged organisation and he was accused of being politically captured. The NPA had misplaced half of its capability and the morale of those that have been left was decimated.
When Batohi returned from her job at the ICC to tackle this poisoned chalice, she described the NPA as a ‘house on fire’. She is now nearer to the finish of her tenure than the starting (she has served 4 years and has three left – a traditional time period is ten years however she has to depart when she is 65).
How would she describe the NPA now I ask?
“We’ve certainly doused the fire. Actually, the house is being rebuilt… we’ve certainly put the foundations down, really strong foundations and that was a really important part of rebuilding. That was a challenge when I first took office, the expectations were unrealistically high, understandably so when one thinks about what has happened in the past ten years,” she says. “We’ve been really hard at work rebuilding the institution. You’ll notice from our annual report that we are ‘reaching solid ground’, you can’t build a solid house on a shaky foundation so there has been a lot of back office work happening like getting the strong leadership, policies, processes.”
Crucially, she now not believes the organisation is factionalised. She says she is nonetheless coping with sure employees members who had been ‘compromised’ however admits this is taking longer as a result of there has to be a good course of.
Recently, advocacy group Open Secrets launched a damning report on the NPA. Bad Cops, Bad Lawyers describes how the NPA and the Hawks are ‘still scrambling to rebuild’ and is essential of Batohi’s failure to behave in opposition to these implicated in corruption and laments the delay in bringing these answerable for state seize crimes to e book. One of the first high-profile bulletins Batohi made was appointing Adv Hermione Cronje as the head of the Investigating Directorate tasked with going after state seize criminals. Cronje left prematurely and by some accounts, the relationship soured due to a breakdown in her relationships with colleagues at the Hawks and the NPA. Batohi is at pains to be diplomatic about this and bristles after I counsel it might have been a mistake to nominate her. (Note: Cronje is now head of litigation at Open Secrets).
Since Adv Andrea Johnson took over as head of the ID there has been headline-grabbing motion with the unit reaching its goal of bringing 9 seminal state seize circumstances to court docket by the finish of September. There is little doubt the tide is turning.
In what Batohi describes as a ‘game-changer’ and ‘huge’, the President additionally final month introduced that the ID can be made everlasting and can be given investigative powers. This is certainly a game-changer as a result of it means the ID now not has to depend on different regulation enforcement companies to construct proof and it could possibly appeal to top-notch assets with the safety of tenure.
“Success begets success and there’s a good mood in the team and this is only the start.”
Batohi is aware of full effectively that the NPA can be judged on whether or not these answerable for the mammoth looting throughout the Zuma period can be delivered to e book and be held accountable. They can be judged in court docket.
“The pressure on the NPA from day one when I took office was to ensure that the perpetrators of state capture are held accountable and as the national director and as a citizen of this country, that is hugely important for me as a citizen like the millions of South Africans who want to see justice, we all know what state capture has done in the country and the poor and the vulnerable have suffered the most.
“After a lot of building and capacity and resourcing, it does feel like things are coming together but we are not where we want to be and there’s still a lot of work. We can not take our collective foot off the accelerator. There’s so much more to be done. Look at the Zondo Commission, it’s a mountain to climb but at least we are climbing and we are moving in the right direction. We may take a few tumbles on the way up. That’s to be expected but hopefully, it doesn’t bring us right down. I have such confidence in the resilience and commitment and dedication of people that are doing this work that I’m confident that even when that happens we will pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and keep moving up because for the country we cannot afford not to do that.”
The NDPP anticipates that she and her prosecutors will come below heavy fire as these circumstances come to court docket. The stakes are excessive and she anticipates there can be makes an attempt to distract them from their work.
“One of their strategies is you don’t defend the case in a court of law, you attack everything else in the hope that the case goes away,” she explains. She won’t compromise the security of prosecutors and witnesses however worries that this is very costly to fund.
She is additionally aware of the extremely charged political setting she and her group is working in. The NPA might discover itself in the midst of a political tsunami if President Cyril Ramaphosa is charged in reference to the Phala Phala case earlier than or after the ANC’s elective convention in December. It feels lots like 2007 and everyone knows how that film ended.
Batohi insists she received’t compromise on upholding the rule of regulation however she additionally must handle selections in a accountable means.
“Politics has nothing to do with the decision to prosecute, I want to make that very clear, but the reality is we don’t work in a bubble. We work in a highly politicised environment. We need to hold the line of the rule of law and decisions are taken no matter who is at the end of the evidence and we need to understand the implications of our decision making, it has consequences.”
One of the greatest hurdles forward is going to be overcoming the Stalingrad defence of the accused and makes an attempt to pull trials by means of the courts for years. Batohi says they’re engaged on a method for this however insists the judiciary additionally bears some duty.
“We can ensure our litigation strategies and our arguments in court are extremely strong with case law to support us, but the judiciary has an important role to play in this as well. The granting of postponements for frivolous reasons has to be something the courts have to think carefully about. It’s a constitutional right to a fair trial, the accused can defend but where you have delaying tactics brought in bad faith, the judiciary must recognise this and put a stop to it. At the end of the day, this will be detrimental to the entire rule of law project.”
Ongoing delays will not be in the pursuits of the nation. People must be held accountable and the nation needs convictions greater than the rest. Batohi is absolutely conscious of this.
She is cautiously optimistic that the Guptas can be extradited to South Africa to face trial and she says we are going to see much more circumstances coming to court docket. There are additionally excessive hopes for convictions. Plea bargains are additionally on the desk as is a really bold asset restoration technique to get again cash that was siphoned off.
Without a shadow of hesitation, Batohi insists she has each intention of serving out the remainder of her time period.
“What better job is there in the world today? This is the most purposeful thing I have ever done in my life and I will not give It up for anything. I really hope that at the end of these three years, we can sit back and say we have really turned this country around; that we have done our absolute best to contribute to the rebuilding of the country. This is my purpose in life.”
Batohi is rebuilding the house that was on fire. She has quietly labored to unite and set up the group round her and this has been rewarded by the President’s actions empowering the ID. The political will and safety from the Minister of Justice are in place.
The local weather is conducive to convictions however the public largely stays cynical. She nonetheless has her critics. She is correctly tempering expectations as the strain is unrelenting. As she says, she and her group should show themselves in court docket.
Author and journalist Mandy Wiener is the host of The Midday Report on 702 and CapeTalk.
