Call for Hawks, NPA to probe key cases
THERE was an urgent need for the Hawks to work closely with the National Prosecuting Authority during investigations, as a number of high-profile cases still had not been finalised despite having been reported to police many years ago, said Parliament’s portfolio committee on police chairperson Francois Beukman yesterday.
Beukman told Independent Media that during a meeting with Hawks head advocate Godfrey Lebeya in Parliament, the committee was shocked to learn that there were high-profile cases that the police had not handed to the prosecuting authority, because of a lack of evidence.
He said the cases included the Steinhoff matter, and one about Ronald Bobroff and his son, Darren, who fled to Australia in 2016 as they were being investigated for fleecing the Road Accident Fund.
“It is important that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation and NPA should make sure that they co-operate with each other to deal with the backlog of these cases,” Beukman said.
It was not only the government departments and entities that were not co-operating with the authorities in terms of investigations. He said Lebeya had given the committee “a broad overview of selected high-profile cases”.
“What became clear was that they had been existing for between two and 10 years. The committee is well aware that some of these cases are complex and require time to attain the necessary information.”
Beukman said the Hawks had given the committee a list 21 of unresolved cases.
“One is the Land Bank, which involved three cases reported between 2011 and 2013 where R100 million was used by staff members. There is also a 2008 case, and some of these are relatively old cases,” he said.
However, Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said there were 1500 corruption cases that remained unsolved due to government departments refusing to co-operate with investigators.
“Many reasons contributed to that, among which were non-co-operation from entities or government departments that needed to assist the investigations. Of course capacity is a challenge that is receiving attention, along with frustrations of defence lawyers, court availability and reliance on third parties,” said Mulaudzi.
He said the Hawks continued to engage the unco-operative parties “and if all fails, we subpoena them”.
“We are diligent with our work and, despite all the challenges, we are committed to delivering on our mandate,” he said.
NPA spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku said there were no “fully investigated” cases sitting with the NPA “without being prosecuted”.
“Once a case is fully investigated and finalised, we take a decision to take the matter to court,” said Mfaku.