Lack of skills & expertise slowing down pace of prosecuting complex corruption matters, NPA tells SCOPA

CAPE TOWN - The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says the lack of skills and expertise is slowing down the pace of prosecuting complex corruption matters.

The Hawks is also experiencing similar challenges, with more than 11,000 commercial and corruption crime matters currently under investigation.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU), the NPA and the Hawks appeared before Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) on Wednesday to discuss the progress in these investigations and prosecutions.

The newly-proclaimed Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) is currently investigating 10 major corruption matters involving Eskom, Transnet, Denel, SAA and Alexkor.

NPA head, Shamila Batohi, said that while state capture cases were of public interest and important to prosecute, they account for less than one percent of the work the NPA has to do.

"These types of cases require very special skills, which even if we can actually hire them, we can't pay the salaries that these type of skills require to pay."

The Hawks' head of serious commercial crime, Mmeli Makinyane, said the police were facing similar challenges.

"The DPCI is also doing the outsourcing so that the cases receive the necessary attention."

The Hawks said these corruption matters account for only two percent of its total workload.