LETTER: We need a single entity to fight serious coruption

The long laundry list of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF’s) presently unsatisfied requirements for getting SA off its greylist — on which, to our shame, we have languished for a year — has been reported on well in your columns (“Treasury confident about exiting greylisting by June 2025”, February 26).

The somewhat misplaced optimism expressed by the Treasury’s Ismail Momoniat must be tempered by the state’s lack of progress in addressing the gutting of law-enforcement agencies at the height of state capture.

Plans to upgrade the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) investigating directorate and clothe it with search and seizure powers will be unconstitutional and ineffective in addressing outstanding FATF requirements.

A Chapter Nine body should be set up as the single entity the law requires for countering serious corruption, but the ANC is stubbornly unwilling to relinquish its political control of SA’s anticorruption machinery, notwithstanding binding judicial precedent and treaty obligations.

Good investigation precedes successful prosecution. The structural and operational capacity to achieve both is lacking and will remain elusive if the underwhelming reforms are persisted in. Due to these awkward circumstances getting off the greylist is not likely to be achieved next year. More is spent on VIP protection now than on the Hawks.

A temporary work-around solution may be possible: inspanning the private sector to do the heavy lifting involved in successful prosecution of complex corruption cases is doable. On the investigative side, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners members stand ready to help the Hawks and the ID.

Senior advocates in private practice can be briefed to lead prosecutors in the complex cases. The use of experienced counsel, well able to match the firepower the corrupt brief, is not a new idea. In the past, senior advocates, some of whom went on to grace the bench, were briefed to prosecute difficult cases.

Prosecutors working as their juniors could gain valuable experience if the NPA briefs outside scarce talents not presently available to it. As usual, the political will to seek help from the private sector is the missing ingredient.

Until there are substantial numbers of corrupt scalps, the FATF will remain unimpressed.

Paul Hoffman, SC

Director, Accountability Now

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