Cape Town - National Prosecuting Authority head advocate Shamila Batohi has denied there was selective prosecution of corruption cases in the agency.
She said the NPA prosecuted cases based on the evidence that was presented to it.
On Friday, Batohi, Special Investigating Unit head advocate Andy Mothibi and Hawks chief Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya were appearing before the portfolio committee on cooperative governance and traditional affairs on corruption cases in municipalities.
The NPA and the other agencies were probing many cases of corruption in municipalities across the country.
However, Batohi, Mothibi and Lebeya denied claims of selective prosecution.
Mothibi said there was no selective investigation in the unit.
Lebeya also said the NPA followed the evidence and, irrespective of who was involved, they investigated and arrested them.
Batohi said it was important for the NPA to ensure there was evidence before it took the matter to court.
“With regard to selective investigations and prosecutions, General Lebeya and advocate Mothibi have talked about the fact that we follow the evidence.
“I think beyond that, that is all we can say is that we do not target people. There is a lot of public information relating to certain people, but we don’t target people.
“We follow the evidence as the general said, and it doesn’t matter who is at the end of the evidence when the matter is fully investigated and the NPA is able to take the decision on. It doesn’t matter who is at the end of that. We will prosecute in line with our mandate.
“We will prosecute, irrespective which political party or affiliations or how powerful or not people are. We follow the evidence and we prosecute cases,” said Batohi.
She said it was correct that the NPA did not have to process all the cases but it did have to prioritise them.
The same would apply to the Hawks when it took on cases. But it had a selection criteria of the cases it would need to investigate and prosecute.
This was done in the anti-corruption task team (ACTT).
“But within the ACTT space, we have very clear case selection criteria, which actually guides the selection of cases in terms of which are the cases that we should prioritise for impact. That will happen because because we are not able to deal with everything at once. But we are trying to address the priority matters.” said Batohi.
Political Bureau