DA seeks update on NPA’s Independent Directorate on Zondo Commission allegations
18 May 2021
Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbite by Adv Glynnis Breytenbach MP.
The DA will submit a written parliamentary question to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, requesting an update of the progress the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Investigating Directorate has made in prosecuting those individuals implicated in corruption at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.
The Directorate was specifically established by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019 to deal with evidence emerging at the Zondo Commission. In addition to this, a protocol regarding the sharing of information and evidence between the Directorate and the Commission that safeguards the permissibility of this evidence before a court was established and signed in August 2020.
In response to a parliamentary question from the DA in September 2020, Minister Lamola stated that recommendations would be made to him, the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, and the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Adv. Shamila Batohi, regarding the terms and conditions of employment of experts that were to prosecute these cases.
In the ensuing period little has happened, while the rot of State Capture continues to be exposed without any prosecutions or jail time.
The most recent ANC member to be implicated in State Capture is former State Security Minister David Mahlobo, who allegedly received millions of Rands from a State Security Agency (SSA) official. That same official testified that she was instructed to funnel millions to the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association to fund factional battles within the ANC.
It has been revealed that amongst his many other counts of malfeasance, former President Jacob Zuma’s monthly income was subsidized for two years with millions of Rands in cash payment from the SSA.
And then there are the many testimonies of corruption and malfeasance at practically every State-owned entity (SOE)– from Eskom and the SABC to Transnet and PRASA. SOEs were used by many ANC members and the politically connected as their personal piggy banks funding lavish lifestyles while the South African economy wasted away, and our people continue to struggle daily.
With the Commission’s work drawing to a close in June, South Africans need to know that action will follow the terrible revelations of corruption and wholesale theft on a grand scale, and that those responsible will face the most serious consequences. South Africans need more than outrage and promises of retribution, we need to see justice being served.
Issued by Glynnis Breytenbach, DA Shadow Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, 18 May 2021
