Omotoso acquittal points to NPA dysfunction, say activists

The acquittal of Nigerian pastor Tim Omotoso and his co-accused in the Eastern Cape High Court in Gqeberha on Wednesday highlights the deep-rooted dysfunction within South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), according to activists.

- Thando Nondywana

Despite facing 32 serious charges, including human trafficking and rape, Judge Irma Schoeman said that the previous prosecutors had acted improperly and failed to cross-examine the accused adequately.

Gender activist Lisa Vetten from the Wits City Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand slammed the case as a humiliation for the NPA and a travesty of justice for the complainants.

"If there is anything good that can come from this case, it is the NPA going away and doing some deep soul-searching. This was not an exceptional, unusual, or isolated case of poor prosecution. If you look at the NPA's own statistics for the past decade, the number of cases they have put down for trial has been getting fewer and fewer every year, which means the number of convictions is also declining.

"There is a problem at a systemic level. Something has gone very wrong in the NPA in the last decade," she said.