The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is deeply concerned about the reported shortage of prosecutors at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Media headlines raised worries about 47 highly skilled and seasoned prosecutors’ early retirements being approved and the consequential loss of badly needed experience. More alarming still are reports about an estimated vacancy rate of up to 600 prosecutors. This takes place against the background of a society battling to cope with unacceptable levels of crime, corruption and often highly sophisticated and well-resourced criminal syndicates.
NPA prosecutors sitting with an average case load of 150 to 300 dockets annually, double the international benchmark recommended, simply cannot afford to lose a single prosecutor, let alone cope with an estimated 15% vacancy rate
Budget cuts have real consequences upon the ability of public services to deliver their constitutional and developmental mandates. The NPA, a state organ whose primary source of expenditure must be its highly skilled personnel, simply does not have the fat for further cuts nor the luxury to abandon its duty to prosecute criminals.
When the NPA is not provided with the necessary resources it needs to win the war against crime and corruption, it is society who pays the price in painfully high levels of crime, particularly in working class communities. It is workers who foot the pay with public services bleeding scarce resources to corruption and an economy struggling to attract the investment needed to stimulate growth and create jobs.
If we are to ensure that the economy is lifted from the jobless 1% growth rate it has been stuck at for more than a decade to reach the 3% plus needed to make a meaningful dent in our dangerously high unemployment rate of 43.7%, then government must provide frontline state organs, in particular the NPA, with the resources needed to provide the public services that the economy requires. The current public anger over crime and unemployment, including unmanaged migration, point to the real dangers and costs of neglecting state capacity in pursuit of budget cuts.
COSATU will seek urgent engagements with government to ensure that October’s Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement marks a decisive break away from the painful austerity budget cuts of the past towards investing in a capacitated state machinery, in particular the NPA and other law enforcement institutions such as the Police, National Defence Force, Home Affairs and the Border Management Authority.
Issued by COSATU
Matthew Parks (COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)
Mobile: 082 785 0687
Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za