ISSUE PAPERS: Key issues in the NPA - Are we understanding the problem correctly?

In a series of five Issue Papers, Lukas Muntingh and Jean Redpath take a few steps back and ask whether we are indeed problematising the correct issues and, if so, are we problematising the issue in a manner that will restore trust and thus legitimacy in the NPA. From this position we can also examine our current and future expectations of the NPA.

The history of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) since its establishment in 1998 has been steeped in controversy, whether related to the quick succession of National Directors, the lack of prosecutions in especially high-profile cases, the politicisation of the NPA, or just the general decline in performance of the NPA amidst a crime situation that has worsened since 2010, after earlier improvements. The expectations created by the appointment of a new National Director in February 2019 and the hearings of the Zondo Commission, have placed tremendous pressure on the NPA to perform and pursue prosecutions especially against those implicated in state capture. It is by now common cause that in the Zuma-years, the NPA lost skilled and experienced people, but it also seems that the willingness to pursue prosecutions at all levels has been affected, as reflected in declining performance. 

Given these immediate pressures and realities, the risk may be there to lose sight of the larger picture and fundamental problems facing the NPA.

In a series of five Issue Papers, Lukas Muntingh and Jean Redpath take a few steps back and ask whether we are indeed problematising the correct issues and, if so, are we problematising the issue in a manner that will restore trust and thus legitimacy in the NPA. From this position we can also examine our current and future expectations of the NPA.

 

The Issue papers and presentations can be accessed here: