By Simon Nare
The National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Shamila Batohi has suggested that a new model of investigating complex criminal cases should be introduced so that prosecutors and police investigators are in synch to ensure successful convictions.
Batohi told MPs at the Standing Committee for Public Accounts that there were instances where police investigators and prosecutors were not on the same page in pursuing certain criminal cases, and this further complicated the job of prosecutors.
The advocate said it was imperative that the two departments were on the same page and worked in a coordinated. However, it had emerged that investigators would say one thing to their superiors while prosecutors were saying something different to their superiors.
“That is where you have these challenges and I think going back to where the chair said you know maybe the IDAC (Investigating Directorate Against Corruption) prosecution-led model is perhaps the model that we should be looking at in terms of very complex cases,” she said.
Batohi told the MPs that former Hawks head Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya had raised the matter of how police investigators and prosecutors were working in harmony at a provincial level.
She pointed out that perhaps at a national level this could be looked at, with stakeholders identifying which areas in that model needed to be improved, or must they come up with a completely new model.
“We have incredibly good relationships. There no challenges with that. At provincial level and national coordination is working well, but I still do see a lot of challenges in the prosecutor guided model because you will have investigators and prosecutors having different understanding.
“Yet if they are working in a team, the way they are supposed to be working in a case, all of them, everyone should be on the same page about this, but I think we need to interrogate this more and to understand what are the strengths of this model and what are the weaknesses and how do we strengthen the model if we want to get the best outcome,” she said.
The NPA came under fire as MPs pointed out to several high-profile cases which the authority lost due to prosecution incompetency. These included the case of Nigerian pastor Timothy Omotoso, who was acquitted of all the sexual charges against him for allegedly abusing members of his congregation.
Batohi admitted that there were challenges with the first prosecution team assigned to the case, but warned that the NPA should not be harshly criticised as it was appealing the case and might win the appeal and bring Omotoso back to the country to face the charges.
She said the NPA had suffered reputational damage due to the Omotoso case and several other high-profile cases. But she maintained that the entity would redeem itself.
Batohi said it should be understood that prosecutors were not investigators. There needed to be skills capacity within the police to grasp what was necessary to put together a strong, prosecutable case.
She added that prosecutors should be getting guidance from police investigators so they could deal with complex cases.
“The prosecution has a minimal guiding role, not a major guiding role because that investigation is happening in the SAPS whose got the skills and expertise. But I think there is a gap there that we need to look into. We as entities need to interrogate this model carefully,” said Batohi.
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