Shamila Batohi's track record as NPA boss
Image: Jacques Naude/African News Agency/ANA
Shamila Batohi's appointment as the National Director of Public Prosecutions raised hopes for a turnaround at the NPA. Despite disappointing results in prosecuting state capture cases, the NPA boasts a remarkable 90% conviction rate in complex commercial crimes in 2024.
This achievement, which also included 333 convictions in complex tax case matters, highlights the NPA's strides in prosecuting financial crimes.
The NPA's Specialised Commercial Crime Unit, in collaboration with the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, achieved these convictions.
The prosecuting body's annual report for 2023/24, also showed that over 900,000 criminal matters were finalised across the country.
The report also stated that the NPA achieved a remarkable 93.4% conviction rate in prosecuting organised crime cases, although a lot needs to be done to ensure that kingpins are also held accountable.
These cases include the arrest and sentencing of six people who were involved in the murder of whistleblower Babita Deokaran. This was after Deokaran reported irregularities in the spending of the Gauteng Department of Health.
Two accused were sentenced to 22 years and three were imprisoned for 15 years.
Vincent Mkhefa, the chief financial officer and acting municipal manager at Nketoana Municipality in the Free State, was sentenced to eight years after he appointed service providers to supply 4,000 single-phase pre-payment electrical meters and 1,000 ready boards for R2,124 million.
At the time he supposedly took the delivery, the items had not even been manufactured and he created the false impression that they were delivered and received.
The unit also had a freezing order of R1.4 billion against Eskom senior executive France Hlakudi who was facing charges of fraud, corruption, and money laundering against him and 10 others.
The NPA also celebrated the Supreme Court of Appeal's decision to dismiss the deportation appeal of Dr Nandipha Magudumana from Tanzania on May 16. This decision ended a long legal battle over the lawfulness of her return to South Africa in April 2023 and clears the way for her trial, set for 21 July 2025, alongside her alleged partner, Thabo Bester.
The NPA also made significant progress in recovering money in economic crime cases, with nearly R2 billion recovered in 129 cases.
Of this, R750m has been paid into the Criminal Asset Recovery Account (CARA).
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