The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has not been able to avoid scrutiny in the State Capture Commission Report.

The report has highlighted the many years that the NPA has failed to prosecute cases of corruption, and specifically those related to the procurement process. The commission’s Chair Justice Raymond Zondo says the failure of the NPA to respond adequately, or at all to the challenges of state capture points to a fundamental failure of a sovereign state function.

He has proposed that a thorough re-appraisal of the structure of the NPA be conducted in order to understand the causes and nature of the institutional weaknesses. He adds that they may be able to be addressed by way of legislative reform. However this has been left to President Cyril Ramaphosa to decide as the commission notes that this would require a separate investigation that falls outside of its remit.

The Zondo commission is heavily banking on the NPA and other law enforcement agencies to bring those guilty state capture corruption to be brought to book. The commission has already recommended several people that the NPA should pursue in the first part of its report.