Critique new private prosecutions unit – Gerrie Nel
FORMER public prosecutor Gerrie Nel has asked the public to challenge and freely critique his newly established private prosecutions unit on its political agenda, choice of cases and partiality.
He was speaking at the Cape Town Press Club where he introduced the unit and spoke about why he left public prosecutions to join AfriForum.
Nel, who is known for his tough stance in criminal cases such as the Jackie Selebi corruption trial and, more recently, the Oscar Pistorius murder trial, launched the unit on AfriForum’s request in February.
He said contrary to speculation, he was not forced to leave the National Prosecuting Authority, where he had been a prosecutor for 35 years.
“I was not kicked out, I did not run away,” he said.
He also said he was invited by AfriForum to establish and head the unit.
“At first, I said: ‘It cannot be done’,” Nel said.
After some thinking and talking to other people, he decided to take on AfriForum’s offer.
“I hate bullies, I hate anyone who uses their power to bully others.”
The unit will have three months to prosecute from the time it acquires a certificate from the NPA.
It will only prosecute cases which the NPA chooses not to prosecute and will apply to the NPA to take the cases on, Nel said.
He explained that because the NPA had the authority on all prosecutions in the country, it could take back cases from the AfriForum unit if it chose to.
He said the unit would start with one or two cases first as it did not have the capacity to do everything.
Nel will be working with a team of five, even though he said he had received numerous CVs from lawyers and police investigators hoping to join the unit.
Asked about being linked to AfriForum, a political organisation and the unit’s partiality in doing its job, Nel said it would work with the utmost integrity and impartiality.
Nel said he would have taken the offer if it came from any other organisation but AfriForum happened to have the vision for the unit. He said he did not have a political agenda and his unit would not be influenced politically.
“Challenge us on the cases we prosecute,” he said, adding that because cases the unit would prosecute would be those declined or rejected by the prosecuting authority it made the process impossible to influence politically.
He said the unit would receive funding from AfriForum, whose funding comes from its 193 000 members.
noloyiso.mtembu@inl.co.za