The department of justice and constitutional development has had to reprioritise its budget to kickstart a new elite prosecution unit that is meant to investigate those implicated in state capture.
The new directorate was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in February. It was seen as a massive step in upping the fight against corruption, which has been one of Ramaphosa’s priorities since he took office.In response to questions from Business Day, the National Prosecuting Authority said the new directorate, which is led by Hermione Cronje, has so far been started up with funds reprioritised by the CFO of the justice department from the “baseline budget” in the national budget.
NPA communications director Bulelwa Makeke said the medium-term expenditure framework process needed to be followed and that the NPA’s bid would be considered by the Treasury in the adjusted estimates of national expenditure in October. The request was considered by the development committee’s criminal assets recovery account-subcommittee in a meeting on Tuesday, she said.National director of public prosecutions Shamila Batohi has met new justice and constitutional development minister Ronald Lamola and raised the issue of funds for the NPA, as well as for the investigating directorate.