CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY AND EVENTS

The United Nations (UN) has numerous days on the annual calendar dedicated to some or other cause or campaign. Many of these pass by almost unnoticed. International Anti-Corruption Day, commemorated on 9 December every year, should not be one of those. For South Africans, this day, is (unfortunately) all too real.

The UN brought together a number of nations 15 years ago to adopt the Convention Against Corruption. Today, 186 states are party to the Convention and subscribe to its anti-corruption goals and ideals. In terms of the Convention, nearly every country in the world has laws in place making corruption a crime. Every country has further committed, through the well-known Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), “to reducing corruption and bribery, strengthening the recovery and return of stolen assets and developing effective, inclusive and transparent institutions”.

The full weight of expectation of the country now rests on newly-appointed National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Advocate Shamila Batohi. Her appointment by President Ramaphosa on 4 December 2018, was received with both relief and hope that she will repair and lead the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) into a future that is unsullied. 

The question of course is that of whether the nation pins its hope – yet again – on “a fixer”, in the absence of the drive to engage systematic and urgent change. Advocate Batohi comes to the position with impeccable credentials and minus the taint of some of her predecessors but will have to contend with an already overflowing inbox; a team that is politically divided and a mission to rejuvenate credibility in the criminal justice system. All this, at a time when too many South Africans appear to be jaded. However, history has proven again and again that South Africans are a feisty lot – with opinions to match – and the new NDPP will receive ample advice even in advance of her assumption of duties in February 2019.