Parliament, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 – The Ad Hoc Committee on the section 100 Intervention in the North West Province has resolved to request more information from law enforcement agencies around the work they are doing which is linked to the intervention in the North West Province.
The committee is of the view that the information provided by the National Prosecuting Authority, Special Investigating Unit and the Directorate for priority Crimes Investigation (DPCI) needs to be augmented to enable the committee to effectively carry out its mandate of oversight.
The foremost concern for the committee has been the slow pace of prosecution by law enforcement agencies against people identified by various reports including the Auditor-General report into the financial management within the province and the diagnostic report that necessitated the intervention.
The committee also raised concerns over cases the agencies reported, that focused more on municipalities and less on departments that have been put under administration. Also, the committee raised concerns about the capacity within the law enforcement agencies to enable them to conclude cases through the criminal justice value chain, from reporting a case to its successful prosecution.
Although the committee had a meeting with the law enforcement agencies on Monday 22 February, it is of the view that it requires more information from the agencies to have a clearer picture of consequence management in the North West Province. To that end, it has scheduled two more interactions with the law enforcement agencies to create enough time to interact with their reports.
The committee resolved to send specific questions to individual agencies in order to guide their collective interactions. Some of the questions that the committee requires more information on, include the following:
- How many cases emanating from departments under Section 100 intervention, since 2018, have been referred to the National Prosecuting Authority for prosecution and how many of the referred cases are deemed prosecutable?
- What are the challenges or factors that are delaying finalisation of cases?
- How many of the investigated cases handed over to the National Prosecuting Authority have been returned for further investigation or returned for compliant with the law in order to meet prosecutorial criteria?
- Have any allegations been levelled against the South African Police officials regarding interference in the work of the section 100 intervention team in the North West?
The committee has recommended that the capacity of law enforcement agencies that are dealing with the North West matter to be strengthened to fast-track investigation and prosecution of cases. Furthermore, the committee has also requested information on the cases that have been withdrawn and reasons for their withdrawal.
In addition to its concerns, the committee has noted that the criminal justice value chain process is often protracted and that may take a number of years to conclude. It is of the view that more needs to be done to accelerate the legal process to ensure that justice is served and is seen to be served.
In spite of all that, the committee is cognisant that these law enforcement agencies are independent and are created according to laws. “We continue to respect the independent nature of our law enforcement agencies, but at the centre of our preoccupation is to ensure that consequence management is implemented against perpetrators of malfeasance,” said the Chairperson of the committee, Mr China Dodovu.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE AD-HOC COMMITTEE ON SECTION 100 INTERVENTION IN THE NORTH WEST PROVINCE, MR CHINA DODOVU.
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