EFF leader Julius Malema has sharply criticised the national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) advocate Shamila Batohi, over her manner of answering questions before parliament’s ad hoc committee.
Batohi faced tough questions in parliament on Tuesday from members of the committee investigating allegations of corruption within the criminal justice system.
The debate was sparked after EFF MP Leigh-Ann Mathys questioned Batohi about the R57.4m in funding received from the federal government of Germany, which was disclosed in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) annual report.
Batohi explained that the funding was not in the form of momey, but rather services offered to the NPA to assist with investigations and the fight against corruption.
Mathys questioned the foundation used to funnel the funding, which Batohi admitted to not knowing much about. She stated that the foundation was chosen by the German government.
This sparked a heated debate, with Malema criticising Batohi’s approach to answering questions, suggesting it gave the impression of someone who “doesn’t care anymore”, especially as Batohi is reportedly preparing for her retirement in January.
“You’re answering like a person who’s going on retirement. It’s like you don’t care what happens,” Malema said.
“How do you come here and say you don’t know who gave you R57.4m. What if these people are chaired by [attempted murder accused Vusimuzi] ‘Cat’ Matlala?”
Malema argued that an institution like the NPA should be aware of the type of partners they associate themselves with.
He referenced former police minister Bheki Cele’s testimony before the committee, where Cele revealed Matlala was allegedly used as a political ploy to fund suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu’s campaign.
“It can’t be that NPA is captured by the same people.”
Malema dismissed the assertion that the donation was not in the form of money.
“You have done a disservice to us. You tell us you don’t need money, you’re rocking, you’re cruising nicely. You can try next year, maybe other years, but this year you are fine, then you come and say you’re taking donations in kind from the Germans, and you keep on saying to us you’re not receiving any funding as if we don’t know the difference between donations in kind and donations in money.
“It doesn’t matter what form it takes, it has monetary value and you’ve accepted it after you said to us you don’t need money.”
Malema further questioned why the businessman and alleged mastermind of a syndicate that defrauded Tembisa Hospital, Hangwani Maumela, has not been arrested.
He said it was “embarrassing” for the NPA to state it would wait for a police investigation before intervening, instead of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac), which falls under the NPA, taking over the investigations.
“That is a pure corruption case of Tembisa Hospital. Why should we be told about police when Idac deals with those matters? It is Idac that should’ve developed an interest on its own that this is too huge to be left, these are the cases we want.”
Malema continued, focusing on the NPA’s role as the primary corruption fighter.
“As a head of the NPA, which Idac falls under, surely you should’ve developed an interest to us and said to Idac R680m is gone. A hospital ordering skinny jeans?
“You should be able to say come here, what happened to this case of people buying patients skinny jeans? Because when we go to hospital we normally get those gowns which are open at the back. What does a patient do with skinny jeans. That should’ve been an issue of interest for a corruption buster.
“That’s not a matter to be left to police. It’s a typical matter of cases that Idac should be dealing with not human resources.”
In response, Batohi agreed that these are the kind of issues they should be dealing with; however, she cited budget constraints as a major obstacle.
“I agree these are the kind of cases Idac should be following,” Batohi said.
“Idac has limited resources at the moment. They are barely able to deal with the cases they want. The role of this committee would be to strengthen Idac to give them the resources and capabilities they need.”
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