Retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo. Picture: Phando Jikelo African News Agency (ANA)
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s future may hang in the balance, but the role of law enforcement agencies to investigate the Phala Phala matter has raised questions.
Prof. Bheki Mngomezulu of UWC said on Thursday the delay by law enforcement agencies to investigate may have been to buy time ahead of the ANC conference this month.
The panel, chaired by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, had 30 days to investigate the issue and made findings Ramaphosa had a case to answer.
Mngomezulu said there could be several factors that led the Hawks, the SAPS, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and other law enforcement to take time to decide on what to do with it.
He said, however, the panel had a specific list of things to do.
“They were not given a blank cheque and acted in line with the terms of reference given by the Speaker,” he said.
“When it comes to the other side, the law enforcement agencies, there is complacency. They knew what needed to be done, but they were not doing that. They might have wanted to delay the matter until after the conference. They didn’t want to rock the boat,” said Mngomezulu.
Prof. Dirk Kotze of Unisa said the parliamentary process had a fixed period in which to do the work.
This cannot be compared with the work that other law enforcement agencies would do when conducting investigations.
When it comes to law enforcement agencies, they need more time to investigate and gather all the evidence, from all sides, to give information to the NPA to make a decision on whether to prosecute or not.
“The Hawks must investigate everything. Then they present the dossier to the NPA and the NPA must decide whether there is evidence or not,” he said.
Kotze said the task of the work of the law agencies is much more comprehensive than the panel.
He said the investigation by the public protector is much more crucial now as she will have to investigate all sides to come up with her own report.
She will have to talk to all sides involved in the matter and draw her conclusions.
IOL