Political parties split over calls to fire NPA boss Batohi

CAPE TOWN - Political parties in Parliament are split on whether the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Shamila Batohi, should be fired.

While ActionSA said Batohi should leave the position due to high-profile failures by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the Democratic Alliance (DA) said it doesn’t support her removal.

But the DA said the NPA is in desperate need of a massive overhaul and has introduced a “reform package” for the NPA that includes passing the DA’s “Scorpions 2.0” bill to create an independent anti-corruption commission.

ActionSA parliamentary leader, Athol Trollip, called for the immediate removal of Batohi and demanded a full parliamentary inquiry into the NPA’s ongoing prosecutorial failures.

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In a statement, Trollip said the NPA had once again “exposed its deep dysfunction, either through incompetence or wilful neglect”, with the latest disgrace being the collapse of the asbestos corruption case involving Former Free State Premier Ace Magashule and his former personal assistant, Moroadi Cholota.

But DA Justice spokesperson, Glynnis Breytenbach, said earlier that her party would not support a motion to remove Batohi because the problems go deeper than just leadership.

“We certainly wouldn’t table such a motion, and we certainly wouldn’t support it. The national director is not the problem at the NPA. It’s not a one-man job or a one-woman job, and while I think she possibly could have things differently, she’s not doing a bad job.”

She said the failures of the NPA are not attributable to her alone, saying she has less than a year left in office, which is more of a concern for the DA.

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