South Africa’s criminal justice system needs a revolution
Last week, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi and National Prosecuting Authority head Andy Mothibi promised that the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption would be ‘reset’ within ‘six months’. South Africa needs fundamentally more than that. We need a revolution in our criminal justice system. There can be no doubt that our criminal justice system is broken. No […] The post South Africa’s criminal justice system needs a revolution appeared first on The Namibian .
Last week, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi and National Prosecuting Authority head Andy Mothibi promised that the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption would be ‘reset’ within ‘six months’. South Africa needs fundamentally more than that. We need a revolution in our criminal justice system.
There can be no doubt that our criminal justice system is broken. No one will argue that it is not.
Virtually every day comes news of another suspected criminal either being released, or using ill-gotten gains to mount some nonsensical court action or even just a police spokesperson muttering after a mass shooting that “investigations are ongoing”.
This is despite the best efforts of many well-meaning people who work as police officers, in the leadership of the SAPS, as prosecutors and as judges (and of a very thoughtful police minister).
But last week’s resignation of former Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) head Andrea Johnson and the testimony against her must be the final nail in the coffin of any hopes that our current system can be reformed.
Consider what has been tried since 2018.
First, President Cyril Ramaphosa brought in an outsider to run the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Shamila Batohi arrived with an impeccable record. And despite bringing in some other outsiders, such as Anton du Plessis, she was unable to reform an institution that had been broken.
