Appointing the next head of the NPA
- In this new report on strengthening South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), CDE has two important proposals.
- We call on President Ramaphosa to ensure the appointment process for the upcoming replacement of the National Director of Public Prosecutions is akin to that recommended by the 2019 Nugent commission into SARS.
- CDE also reiterates it’s call on the President to appoint a retired judge to undertake an urgent inquiry into the structure, integrity, performance and overall leadership of the NPA.
- The NPA has failed to institute and successfully prosecute a significant number of the major cases of corruption long identified in the forensic reports into PRASA, Transnet and Eskom, in the reports of the Zondo Commission, and in numerous journalistic investigations.
- Interviews of the next NDPP candidates should not be public as this often produces poor results: good candidates are dissuaded from applying, discussions become superficial, and media spectacle replaces serious engagement.
- The inquiry into the performance of the NPA must identify the specific causes of the NPA’s underperformance, and the report flowing from such an inquiry, containing appropriate recommendations for remedial action, will provide the incoming NDPP with a ‘roadmap’.
