NPA says Justice Dept has hindered access to state capture commission database

CAPE TOWN - The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says the Department of Justice has created stumbling blocks in accessing the state capture commission database.

National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi told Members of Parliament (MPs) on Tuesday that they’d been requesting full "unhindered access" to the commission’s database for about four years as they try to prosecute state capture-related cases.

Batohi and the department headed by Justice Minister Thembi Simelane appeared before Parliament’s justice committee to discuss the impasse between the NPA and the department on the database.

Batohi said she’d written several letters to the department as the NPA tried to access information to use in its various criminal prosecutions.

While there was relative access, she said that the access was not unhindered for them to meet the expectations of the public in prosecuting cases.

She said that the Investigating Directorate in the NPA was provided "levels of access" but not the full access it needs.

"In order to fulfil its constitutional mandate and in order to meet expectations of the public, the ID requires what we call unhindered access to the archives of the state capture commission, including electronic databases."

Professor Itumeleng Mosala, who was part of the commission, said NPA officials had been trained on how to access the information and were not being hindered.

"There’s no intention from my team and we don’t have the authority to hinder access to any of the information."

Members of the committee have also questioned both the NPA and the department on the nature of the evidence, saying the matter should be resolved "in-house".