WATCH | Criminal probes ‘not sufficient’ to end justice capture, Madlanga hears - TimesLIVE
The commission is probing allegations of criminality and corruption in SA’s criminal justice system.
Pop, who works for the World Bank and collaborates with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, told the commission that criminal infiltration in SA was not an isolated phenomenon and that other countries that had confronted state capture often relied on institutions and mechanisms that were already in place, with only minor modifications.
“Criminal investigations or disciplinary investigations use some of the bodies that are already there, and what happens is that some countries have seen that these measures are not sufficient,” she said.
Pop said the investigative measures could fall short because the bodies tasked with conducting the disciplinary hearings could themselves become captured, or their approach and practice might not be a match for the challenge.
[I]t can take years to have a criminal case against a single corrupt criminal justice officer adjudicated.
“Another issue is that in many countries, the issue of capture is coupled with the long delays in investigation, prosecution or adjudication stages, and it can take years to have a criminal case against a single corrupt criminal justice officer adjudicated.”
Pop was invited to share international experiences of extraordinary integrity evaluations of officials in justice systems and how such processes were resolved.
She outlined a number of measures adopted by other countries to address infiltration in the criminal justice system. These included:
She said Ukraine’s distinctive approach involved hybrid assessment bodies that brought civil society and international experts together when vetting and selecting justice officials.
Over the past few months, the commission has heard evidence about the alleged infiltration of the criminal justice system by organised criminal groups, including claims that compromised officials had been used to further the activities of the groups.
The government has, on several occasions, raised concerns about the integrity of public servants and proposed measures such as lifestyle audits to identify unexplained wealth and other potential red flags among officials.
Against this backdrop, the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption, which has itself faced allegations of abuse of power in the execution of its duties, is conducting lifestyle audits of its members while also auditing their dockets.
