NPA to investigate 63 cases in EC – if it has the money

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has referred 63 cases against officials of three Eastern Cape municipalities to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for prosecution.

The unidentified officials will now face charges of maladministration and corruption in courts of law. That is, if the NPA can address its severe staff shortages. NPA boss Shamila Batohi told the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) in the national assembly on Wednesday they simply did not have the capacity to handle the cases.

Batohi said out of 117 specialised criminal court prosecutors at the NPA, 10 were in Port Elizabeth, three in Mthatha and two in East London.

While the SIU, which only probes on the instruction of a sitting president, has referred the 63 cases to the NPA, SIU head Andy Mothibi said they would conclude their investigation next month into how state funds were looted during former president Nelson Mandela’s mourning period late in 2013.

The SIU is investigating Buffalo City Metro, Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality and other state institutions’ officials for their roles in the Mandela funeral funds scandal.

Commenting on the 63 cases, Batohi said: “I have to be candid with the committee – these cases have been extremely slow.”

She attributed this to incapacity. Batohi previously spoke of how the NPA had been affected by severe staff shortages, with senior prosecutors who had left not having been replaced.

Mothibi told MPs the unit had recovered R35m lost due to maladministration in Alfred Nzo municipality during the current financial year, while their probe helped save R8m of taxpayers’ money. The unit’s investigations into the municipality also led to a contract being set aside.

Thirty criminal cases in Alfred Nzo were referred to the NPA, and 12 in Raymond Mhlaba municipality.

The cases relate to irregularities in procurement and unauthorised expenditure.

Mothibi said: “The report will be dispatched to the president soon.”

He said the Special Tribunal, set up to claw back billions of rands in looted money, would work closely with the SIU.

SIU chief programme portfolio officer Pranesh Maharaj highlighted maladministration in the procurement of “yellow fleet and white fleet” vehicles in the Mbhashe local municipality.

Maharaj said: “These vehicles in Mbhashe were purchased in terms of a hire purchase contract from the service provider and we’re investigating the procurement process that was followed in the municipality’s acquisition and equipment.”

Adding to Maharaj’s presentation on the investigation into Mbhashe fleet procurement, Mothibi said service providers were in cahoots with municipal officials.

“Once they’ve done it to one municipality, they go on to another municipality, and we see this trend with the yellow fleet [tender] in the Eastern Cape.

“In the North West there is a similar investigation we’re following up,” Mothibi said.

Scopa chair Mkhuleko Hlengwa and the committee noted that lack of funding was crippling both the SIU and NPA.

Once they’ve done it to one they go on to another – we see this trend in the EC