Misfire? Crucial moment in NPA's anti-corruption campaign
Last year was not a good year for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Expectations that Rajesh and Atul Gupta, the alleged kingpins of the state capture, would be brought from Dubai to South Africa to face their music ended in April 2023 when the United Arab Emirates rejected an extradition request by the NPA. When it became clear, it was shattered.
Just weeks after the Dubai Court of Appeal refused to extradite the Gupta brothers to stand trial in South Africa, the Free State High Court has ordered all defendants in the R24.9 million Nulane fraud and money laundering case, the NPA's first state capture trial. He was acquitted.
Devastated and hurt, the NPA Investigation Directorate launched a R2.5-million corruption and money laundering case against former National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula in April 2024. News24 legal journalist Karin Maughan writes in this Friday Briefing that the case could fall into one of the following categories: It is the most tradition-defining (or tradition-destroying) prosecution of the NPA. She details why the National Police Agency cannot lose this case.
We have also received information from the NPA's Shamila Batohi and Anton du Plessis that recent developments in the former Steinhoff CEO and Mapisa-Nqakula cases have led to an increase in the number of cases involving high-profile defendants in the public and private sectors. It says that it is. This shows that the NPA carries out its mandate without fear or favor.
CASAC Executive Director Lawson Naidoo is also involved in this issue. He said that looking at the fight against state power and corruption through the narrow lens of what the NPA does or does not do does not do justice to its broader efforts in the anti-corruption environment. I firmly believe that.
He argues that a clear plan to address and fix the structural weaknesses that have allowed state capture and corruption to flourish must be an absolute priority to win the fight against corruption.
Finally, Karam Singh of Corruption Watch reflected on the country's lack of leadership. Going forward, he writes, South Africa needs a decisive political will from our leaders to put South Africa on a different trajectory, one based on principles of integrity and accountability.
I hope you enjoy reading it this weekend.
The best,
Vanessa Bunton
Opinion editor.
While further progress is needed, the NPA continues to make significant progress in working with partners in the most difficult environments to tackle the complex and deep-rooted corruption scourge that plagues our country, it wrote. Shamila Batohi and Anton du Plessis.
Some progress has been made in South Africa's fight against corruption, writes Karam SinghBut the fight has not kept pace with corruption itself because it lacks committed leadership with the courage to do things differently.
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