Unprepared or misunderstood? Shamila Batohi’s parliamentary performance draws mixed reactions

NATIONAL Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi faced tough questioning in Parliament over the NPA’s handling of political killings, appearing unprepared with statistics and drawing criticism from analysts.

- MONISHKA GOVENDER

Advocate Shamila Batohi

While some point to a leader overwhelmed by a broken system, others suggested her performance reflected the challenges of leading a hollowed-out institution under immense pressure.

Amid mounting concerns about the alleged infiltration of the criminal justice system, Batohi faced the parliamentary ad hoc committee last Tuesday that examined the alleged troubling interplay between criminals and key officials in law enforcement.

The ad hoc committee was established in October to investigate allegations by Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

This included the alleged unlawful decision by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu to disband the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), and the alleged unlawful removal of 121 case dockets from the PKTT on the direction of the deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya.

During the hearing, committee member and chairperson of portfolio committee on justice and constitutional development, Xola Ngola, asked Batohi for statistics around the effectiveness of the NPA’s efforts in the fight against political killings.

“So you don’t know how effective the NPA has been in aiding the fight against political killings?” said Nqola.

Batohi replied: “I have the statistics from the Political Killing Task Team and whether it has been effective or not. We have numbers, but we don’t know the extent of the problem, but certainly there are people who have been arrested and charged. We have those figures.”

Ngola restructured his question by asking: “How many political killing matters have been prosecuted?”

Batohi conceded that while the NPA had general data, she did not have specific figures readily available to demonstrate or measure the success or the true scope of their work regarding this specific issue.

This led committee members to question how the NPA could properly assess its progress without concrete data.