SOWETAN | NPA, focus on work and ignore glitz

Prosecutors have an independent right and responsibility to make informed decisions about their case management strategies. 

Of most importance in their work is the pursuit of justice and the interest of the public in all matters.  

Therefore those who are entrusted with the responsibility to pursue justice on behalf of victims of crime must do their work in a manner that builds rather than diminishes public confidence in our criminal justice system. 

The handling of the Thabo Bester case so far highlights what appears to be a worrying trend in the National Prosecuting Authority’s case management strategy – at least in some cases which have attracted media attention. 

On this matter the NPA initially charged all suspects allegedly involved in Bester’s elaborate prison escape, including his girlfriend Nandipha Magudumana’s father, Zolile Sekeleni, with murder. 

The murder charge related to the burnt body found in Bester’s cell in May last year. 

The charge was questionable because even at its infancy, the NPA’s case was that those involved had collaborated to claim a dead body from a mortuary, transport it to the Mangaung prison, burnt it and passed it off as Bester’s. 

Granted, the man who has since been identified was Katlego Bereng was murdered, his autopsy confirmed. 

However even on the NPA’s initial version, there was no apparent evidence that his death was in fact caused by those who the prosecuting authority had charged with murder. 

Predictably, this week the NPA dropped the murder charge against all accused, a move presumably necessitated by evidence before it. 

While the decision may be legally sound, left unexplained, it raises questions about why the NPA would pursue such a serious charge in the first place when it was not reasonably supported by its own version of events. 

This is especially so considering that preliminary evidence against the accused on all other charges points to a solid case in the hands of prosecutors. 

Time and again, we have witnessed prosecutors mount up significant charges against accused persons, excite public sentiment, only to climb down as soon as the proverbial rubber hits the road. 

In doing its work, the NPA must guard against a perception that its strategy is driven by headline grabbing sensation rather than a calculated but effective approach that is legally and reasonably sound.