Corruption Watch calls for protection of investigators involved in high-profile cases
Singh's comments come in the wake of last week's attempted assassination of SARS advocate Coreth Naudé, who has been involved in several high-profile investigations.
Picture: Corruption Watch/Facebook
JOHANNESBURG - Executive Director at Corruption Watch Karam Singh says the criminal justice system is in “crisis”.
Singh's comments come in the wake of last week's attempted assassination of SARS advocate Coreth Naudé, who has been involved in several high-profile investigations.
The incident comes hot on the heels of the murder under similar circumstances of City of Johannesburg investigator Zenzele Benedict Sithole earlier this month.
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It also follows hits on liquidators Cloete and Thomas Murray last year, and the Gauteng Health Department's Babita Deokaran in August 2021.
Singh said these kinds of targeted killings of professionals and investigators working to stamp out corruption were “incredibly concerning”.
"It has the potential to have a really chilling effect when it comes to the fight against corruption, because we know how important whistleblowers are to that pursuit," he said.
Singh said further, though, that these incidents point to a prevailing “brazen sense of impunity”.
"Increasingly, we're living in a society where people can get away with murder because the cops are overwhelmed with investigations. Investigations take a long time, we know that the prosecution services are also overwhelmed, and they really have problems expediting investigations into successful prosecutions. So there is a real crisis, I think, within the criminal justice system," he added.