APPOINTMENT OF DIRECTOR OF THE INVESTIGATING DIRECTORATE ESTABLISHED IN THE OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS (NDPP)
Friday, 17 May 2019
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) welcomes the President's appointment of Adv Hermione Cronje as head of the recently proclaimed Investigating Directorate (ID) dealing with serious, complex and high-level corruption, including allegations emerging from the Zondo, Nugent and Mpati Commissions of Inquiry. This appointment is an important step towards achieving the NPA's firm commitment to end impunity for serious crimes, including corruption.
Adv Cronje has the academic qualifications, wealth of knowledge and practical expertise required for this crucial position. She is highly regarded in the law enforcement community as a tenacious energetic and competent woman and is therefore well placed to co-ordinate with the Investigating Directorate's key partners notably the South African Police Service (SAPS) and in particular, the Directorate Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI).
She is an internationally recognised anti-corruption expert with extensive experience working with the NPA, where in 1998 she was part of establishing the Investigating Directorate into Serious Economic Offences and the Investigating Directorate into Organised Crime. She was also one of the founding members of the Asset Forfeiture Unit in the NPA where she initiated several ground- breaking asset forfeiture applications under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, including the confiscation application in the Schabir Shaik matter, resulting in the Constitutional Court judgment forfeiting to the State R30 million derived as the proceeds of corruption .
Adv Cronje spent 8 years as Regional Head: Asset Forfeiture Unit (Western Cape), an office she built up from scratch. Before leaving the NPA in 2011 she played a role in the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Task Team (ACT T), a multi-agency task team established to investigate, prosecute and recover the assets of persons involved in grand corruption.
At the international evel, Adv Cronje was appointed as an expert consultant for the Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative (StAR) (a joint initiative of the World Bank and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)). She worked as an advisor and mentor to the asset recovery and anti-corruption units in several countries in Africa, South East Asia and Europe. A key focus of her international work was to assist national anti-corruption bodies to develop and implement strategies to trace and recover the proceeds of corruption secreted to jurisdictions off-shore. In 2017, Adv Cronje was the lead author of a UNODC Study on the Effective Management and Disposal of Seized and Confiscated Assets.
Adv Cronje is a practising advocate of the High Court of South Africa (admitted in 2000) and a member of the Cape Bar (since 14 December 2012). She obtained her BA-LLB from the University of Cape Town (OCT) and has a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University.
The NDPP, Adv Shamila Batohi will host a media briefing on Friday, 24 May 201 9, together with the National Commissioner of the SAPS, Lt General KJ Sithole, to introduce the new Investigating Director, Adv Cronje. The NDPP will also provide details on the legal framework, powers, duties and functions of the ID and an overview of next steps and priorities.
She will also provide an update on other interventions and key developments at the NPA since she assumed office in February.
The invitation and further details of the media briefing will be communicated in due course.
Issued by Bulelwa Makeke, Head of Communications, National Prosecuting Authority, 19 May 2019
