The challenges facing Shamila Batohi and the NPA

NATIONAL PROSECUTING AUTHORITY

- ZAKHELE COLLISON NDLOVU

SINCE 1994, South Africa has struggled to develop strong and effective institutions to combat crime and other social ills. The result is that more South Africans are placing their faith in individuals they regard as messiahs to perform miracles and save them from the scourge of crime.

The appointment of the no-nonsense and impeccable Advocate Shamila Batohi as the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is a case in point. Batohi's legal expertise was cemented internationally when she became a senior legal advisor to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague from 2009 to 2018

Unlike her predecessors, who were perceived as deployees of the ANC, Batohi was seen as a bona fide prosecutor and a consummate professional who would execute her mandate without prejudice, fear, or favour.

What South Africans neglected and ignored is that, like in team sports, Batohi would be teaming up with colleagues in the weak NPA and other law enforcement agencies. Batohi, for her part, appeared to have assumed that South Africa's state institutions had evolved during her stint at the ICC and were no longer weak and ineffective.

Batohi gained notoriety and the confidence of South Africans when she reduced Hansie Cronje, the captain of the Proteas, to tears during cross-examination at the King Commission, which looked into the match-fixing scandal of the Proteas's tour of India.

Similarly, the appointment of Bheki Cele as the Minister of Police had many South Africans believing that the tough-talking "shoot to kill" Cele would miraculously scare criminals and stop rampant crime. Cele gained notoriety as a crime fighter when he served as the National Commissioner of the SAPS. Instead, crime is now out of control, and criminals continue to get away with it.