The cash-strapped National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is facing yet another challenge as some intern prosecutors have declared a dispute over what they say is an unfair process that fails to guarantee them permanent employment.
The NPA, hit by the government’s wide-ranging budget cuts, initially said it cannot give jobs to any of the 344 interns after they complete their in-service training next month. This will worsen delays and strain on the already congested magistrate’s courts across the country.
The aspirant prosecutor programme is a 12-month internship, which enables “competent candidates to be appointed at entry-level prosecutorial positions in the NPA”. The programme helps to provide additional capacity in the lower courts.
The NPA later accepted a compromise suggested by some of the interns whereby their internship would effectively be extended beyond its scheduled expiry and they would remain in the system. However ,there is a catch: they are not guaranteed permanent employment when the NPA eventually gets additional funds.
“Management of the NPA considered the proposal and is amenable to accepting the offer to remain in the programme,” Tshidi Modise, director of human resources at the NPA, said in a memo to staff.
“The offer, when accepted, is subject to the aspirants forfeiting any future claim to the position of district court prosecutors and accepting that, when funds are available, absorption will not be retrospective…
“The proposal ... will be applicable to those aspirant prosecutors who have expressed their willingness to remain as aspirant prosecutors until the financial situation changes in the NPA and to those who are willing to be accommodated in the proposal,” Modise said.
But the interns are divided among themselves over the compromise.
“The NPA is aware that there are some aspirant prosecutors who have chosen to declare a dispute,” Modise said. “Therefore, they will not be accommodated in the offer above as their issue will be dealt with through the normal dispute resolution, unless they choose to formally withdraw their dispute and voluntarily choose to be included in the offer.”
Why would you train prosecutors and not absorb them? Is that not a waste of money? It is exploitation.
— NPA insider
Some NPA insiders argue that it is unfair of the agency to expect the trainee prosecutors, who receive only a stipend, to perform meaningful work during their internships but not reap the rewards when the organisation gets additional funds in the future.
“This means the NPA can do as it pleases, it can appoint people from outside and not start with the people who worked as aspirant prosecutors,” said one insider.
“This is literally a way to handcuff them, because when the NPA has future funds, those aspirant prosecutors will not have any legal claim to be absorbed. The other question is, why would you train prosecutors and not absorb them? Is that not a waste of money? It is exploitation.”
NPA acting deputy director-general for corporate services, Bulelwa Makeke, said it was unfortunate that the organisation had been affected by budget cuts.
“There will be no exploitation because during the extended period of their tenure in the programme, they will gain additional experience that will enable them to be eligible for consideration for higher positions, not only in the NPA, but across the whole justice cluster when positions become available,” she said.
“Further, this is not compulsory, but will be for those who have expressed willingness to participate in this manner… The choice of the language was to create clarity that remaining in the NPA is not delaying the appointment, but accepting that appointments can only be made at a time when the NPA has budget available.”
Makeke said the NPA was not closing the door on those who had declared a dispute but that “once a dispute is declared, a prescribed procedure for dealing with disputes is followed and parallel processes cannot be entertained”.
The NPA has frozen hiring and stopped overtime pay since the budget cuts were announced. Among other things, prosecutors will not be paid overtime or acting allowances, and vacant posts are unlikely to be filled.
Insiders and independent commentators have raised concerns about the impact the cuts will have on the NPA, which was hollowed out during the state capture years, and on its capacity to deal with cases involving serious financial and organised crime.
