Tight state capture cases ‘take time’
Spokesperson back in saddle as prosecuting authority rebuilds
● New National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Sipho Ngwema says South Africans have some months to wait until any of the architects of state capture are hauled before court — because prosecutors are determined to win.
Ngwema, who worked for the NPA under former national director Bulelani Ngcuka before his departure 15 years ago, was appointed on Monday, tasked with helping to rehabilitate the image of an organisation battered by incompetence and an apparent inability to bring SA’s biggest crooks to book.
Although he hasn’t yet been briefed on individual cases, he “doubts it will be years” before the big arrests are made.
“The NPA itself is feeling the pressure from the public,” he said in an interview just days into his new job.
Three years since the Gupta Leaks broke — and as many South Africans take to social media to voice outrage that 230,000 citizens have been arrested for breaking lockdown rules but none for state capture — Ngwema said he fully understands the frustration, but asked for patience for prosecutors determined to bring a winnable case.
“In commercial cases, you have to be very thorough … And also we are dealing with smart people. They carry cash in black bags — it’s no longer doing things through transactions,” he said, in an apparent reference to former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas allegedly being offered an immediate R600,000 cash bribe in a black bag by a Gupta brother should he accept the job of finance minister and work with the family.
“We have to make sure that the evidence is not circumstantial and that the case is tight. People are impatient to see these cases in court as soon as possible. We all [are] …
Were they to proceed because they are under pressure and they lose dismally, probably the confidence in the NPA, whatever there is left, will plummet to zero.”
Ngwema’s appointment on Monday took place alongside President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of three new NPA executives. Advocates Ouma Rasethaba and Rodney de Kock were appointed deputy national directors, with Rasethaba leading the Asset Forfeiture Unit and De Kock heading prosecution services. Advocate Mthunzi Mhaga, a former NPA spokesperson, was appointed strategic and legal adviser to national director of public prosecutions Shamila Batohi.
Ngwema, who was at the organisation from the start in 1998, has worked with all of them — including Batohi. Since he left, the NPA has had seven permanent or acting national directors, none of whom served a full 10-year term.
“I felt [at a meeting of the executive] yesterday [Tuesday] that the team is quite ready to get into action. Key among which is to reclaim that which was stolen from the country through asset forfeiture,” said Ngwema.
“All the components of the NPA need to make sure that they work harder, and that their work is known.”
Ngwema, who is on a year’s secondment from the Competition Commission, accepted the NPA job after receiving “two calls from someone in government”, who he declined to name, asking him to help Batohi restore confidence in and bring stability to the institution where “a lot has been damaged and destroyed”.
“[Batohi] herself gave me a shout. We met and had a discussion immediately after her appointment.”
Ngwema has left a “small, tight-knit” team for the behemoth of the NPA.
Besides headline-dominating cases such as state capture — which constitute less than 5% of the NPA’s caseload — there are victims of crime that Ngwema would like to see grow closer to the “people’s lawyers” who will represent them “formidably”.
“If you can’t walk with your cellphone, if you can’t walk as a woman at any time of the day, those are the cases really that hit our communities, along with housebreakings and hijackings. The NPA deals largely with those,” he said. “It is really to make sure that there’s empathy, and that people are able to understand that we feel their pain, and we want to restore their freedoms … They need to see justice in action, to win their confidence back.”
Ngwema said issues of poor staff morale were there during the early days and still are. So is the upcoming corruption case against former president Jacob Zuma.
Another thing that has remained the same is Ngwema’s old access card, which he last used 15 years ago, and which the organisation kept for him along with his records.
Asked if his arm had to be twisted to return, Ngwema said it was not that difficult a decision. “When you are a South African and were privy to what the country’s vision was at a particular point, and you have seen institutions destroyed and crumbling, I don’t think you need to be convinced,” he said.