AfriForum resubmits complaint against Shaun Abrahams after dossier disappears

10 June 2020 

AfriForum today resubmitted charges of corruption, fraud, theft, extortion and forgery against Shaun Abrahams, former national Director of Public Prosecution, and six other top members of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). This follows the August 2018 complaint laid by the civil rights organisations, of which the dossier has since disappeared.

AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit directed numerous queries to the SAPS regarding the progress of the investigation, but without any significant feedback. The SAPS eventually informed AfriForum that the dossier had gone missing and that the organisation should resubmit the complaint.

The complaint was initially laid after AfriForum had received an anonymous letter that contained allegations of serious criminal action within the NPA. The allegations in the letter referred among other to covertly funded fraudulent claim for travel expenses of four members of the NPA. These claims, submitted for approval to travel to Zeerust, twist the fact that these persons had in truth travelled to Cape Town and spent R97 000 of the covert funds there. The author of the letter also alleged that a witness protection vehicle had been allocated to Abrahams, which he used for personal purposes.

According to Monique Taute, head of AfriForum’s Anti-corruption Unit, the civil rights organisation is concerned about the lack of progress in the investigation, as well as that the dossier had disappeared seemingly for the sake of convenience. “We will continue to apply pressure to ensure that the guilty persons are brought to book. The fact that the dossier had disappeared, may possibly point to some people being protected from prosecution for some or other reason – something that AfriForum can simply not allow. Everyone should be equal before the law,” Taute says. 

Issued by Carina Bester, Media Relations Officer, AfriForum, 10 June 2020