EDITORIAL | Zondo and SIU reports mean little if NPA is broken

Eighteen months and many billions of rand later, the Special Investigating Unit has released its final report on graft related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Of the finalised investigations, more than 60% were found to be irregular.

The numbers mentioned in the report are staggering. It paints a bleak picture that is made even bleaker by the knowledge that it happened on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s “new dawn” watch. The only thing in Ramaphosa’s favour is that he was the one who authorised the SIU to probe allegations relating to the misuse of Covid-19 funds across all spheres of government. His proclamation also empowered the SIU to institute civil proceedings for the recovery of any damages or losses incurred by the state. According to the SIU, the rand value of cash and assets set to be recovered, based on the investigation, is just over R550m. So far, a total of R34.2m has been recovered, a drop in the ocean considering the vast amounts involved.

The SIU said it had made more than 220 referrals for disciplinary action against government officials, another 386 to the National Prosecuting Authority and 330 for administrative action such as blacklisting tenderers. This really is the last chance for our government to show it is serious about sending a strong message to offenders. Disciplinary action against the culprits should be instituted speedily. That might yield results sooner than the hundreds of matters referred to the NPA, which now more than ever cannot afford to dabble in internal politics.

Last week TimesLIVE reported that outgoing NPA Investigating Directorate head adv Hermione Cronje may have been pushed to resign instead of quitting of her own accord. Almost a week later, there has been not a peep from the NPA to clarify what she said in her resignation letter. Its spokesperson adv Mthunzi Mhaga said NPA management would not respond to questions sent to them, referring TimesLIVE back to a statement national director Shamila Batohi read out in December. She said, among other things, “this type of leadership change is normal. It’s not a sign of crisis or collapse.”

Consider for a moment what is on the NPA’s plate. In January Mhaga referred to the workload resulting from state capture report as a “Herculean task given the volume of materials and the finite human and financial resources available to our law enforcement and criminal justice agencies”. He said the NPA was exploring options to boost its capacity. The NPA and Hawks were reviewing deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo’s 874-page report, the first of three that summarise the state capture commission’s work conducted since it was established in 2018.

The NPA told parliament late last year the Investigative Directorate had 17 permanent staff. There were 120 people attached to the unit, but many of those staff were essentially borrowed from the under-capacitated Hawks, contractors and other agencies, the Sunday Times reported. How then will this NPA team be able to speedily prosecute those fingered in the 874-page Zondo report and at the same time turn its attention to more than 300 prosecutions referred to in the 737-page SIU report?

Again, South Africans are being let down. Finalising the SIU report into Covid-19 corruption is only half the job done. It will morph into a meaningless exercise if no real sanctions materialise. Our government needs to invest more resources in our investigating and prosecuting bodies to prioritise action against corrupt officials who are slowing smothering SA.