SA's prosecutors 'mean business'
Shadi Baloyi and Richard Mantu
13 February 2004
Despite being in its infancy, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) - which includes the country's elite investigating unit, the Scorpions - has given South Africans new confidence in the justice system, says prosecutions chief Bulelani Ngcuka.
Addressing a two-day prosecutors' conference in Kempton Park this week, the national director of public prosecutions said that as the country celebrated 10 years of democracy, "we should also celebrate the work and sacrifices that prosecutors and investigators have made ... to ensure that justice is done as envisioned in our Constitution".
The NPA comprises the asset forfeiture unit, the directorate of special operations (the Scorpions), the national prosecutions service, the special commercial crimes unit, the sexual offences and community affairs unit, the witness protection unit, the priority crimes litigation unit, and the integrity management unit that combats corruption within the NPA.
Ngcuka said the national prosecutions service, which executes the NPA's core function of prosecutions, managed a conviction rate of 85% in district courts, 67% in regional courts, and 87% in high courts for the period of January to October last year.
"In this unit we have consistently challenged ourselves and set targets by which we want the NPA to be judged. The performance over the years has surprised all the sceptics, both inside and outside of this conference", Ngcuka said.
He said that through the 128 Saturday Courts and 78 Additional Courts established since 2001, 23 569 cases had been finalised, resulting in some areas finalising all their cases.
Ngcuka also highlighted the success of the Scorpions, which d had managed 214 major convictions from 250 instances of arrest, search, seizure, interception, entrapment, and surveillance, saying these had contributed significantly towards disrupting organised crime.
Last year alone, he said, the
Scorpions had managed to rid the country of drugs valued at R1.2-billion.
According to Ngcuka, the asset forfeiture unit froze assets acquired from criminal activities in more than 170 new cases, with a value of R78-million, returning more than R100-million to victims of fraud and corruption.
All the money seized by the asset forfeiture unit, about R50-million, has gone to the criminal assets recovery fund, which is used to fund other law enforcement agencies to fight crime.
"This is one of the stories we must tell the public: that we are succeeding in using the proceeds of crime to fight crime", Ngcuka said.
Source: BuaNews
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