Minister Mamoloko Kubayi: NPA Aspirant Prosecutor Programme Graduation Ceremony

Programme Director Adv Thwala
Deputy Minister, Mr Andries Nel
NDPP, Adv Andy Mothibi
DNDPP, Adv Mzinyathi
DPPs and Senior Leadership of NPA
Adv Rangaka, national coordinator of the Aspirant Prosecutor Programme
Advisors of Minister Dr Marwala and Adv January
2025 Class of Aspirant Prosecutors

Good morning
Let me start by sending a word of congratulations to all the graduates today. I would like to say Well done to all of you; we are very proud of your hard work and dedication to excellence and public service. Being a public servant is a vocation whose path can be both exciting and challenging, and if done with conscientiousness it can also be very rewarding.

As you sit here today with the decision you have taken to be part of this programme, you are part of the building blocks of a greater vision of turning South Africa into an inclusive capable, ethical and developmental state.

Having joined this programme of Aspirant Prosecutors, you have started a journey of being defenders of people’s rights and justice in one of the critical institutions of our democracy. Fundamentally, the NPA, in addition to securing justice for the victims of crime, has a mandate to ensure that criminals get the punishment they deserve for the crimes they have committed.

The famous philosopher, John Rawls, in his book titled “A Theory of Justice” says that: “Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust.” It does not matter how well-arranged the NPA is, and how efficient you think you are as prosecutors, what matters is getting justice for the victims of crime.

It is within this context, the prosecution authority cannot compromise on its impartiality, by prosecuting with fear or favour or prejudice. When it comes to deciding on which cases to prosecute or not, the NPA and its prosecutors must operate behind the veil of ignorance.

In other words, race, class, age, gender and political affiliation should never become a factor in the decision making of a prosecutor, only the facts of the case. Prosecutors must consistently charge like cases alike otherwise confidence will be eroded if the public believes that in the NPA crime is in the eye of the beholder.

We cannot allow ordinary citizens in our country who look to the state as their last line of defense to lose faith in the capacity of the state to secure them justice. Otherwise,

we risk exacerbating the community’s tendency to take the law into its own hands which will lead to anarchy and the destruction of our hard-won democracy.

As young prosecutors, who want to build a successful career as prosecutors, you should know that your success will be measured by how many convictions you have successfully achieved not by how many cases you have brought before the courts. The more you convict criminals who deserve to be punished for their crimes, the more you will build trust not only in the NPA but in our justice system as a whole.

The NPA must undertake this task of rebuilding trust cognisant of the fact the NPA is part of the value chain of the justice system. To secure convictions the NPA relies on the performance of a variety of state actors in contributing to such a successful prosecution: it starts with the police in handling complaints, investigating crimes, handling arrests and providing evidence in court; the NPA in conducting prosecutions, the fairness and the capacity of the prosecutor; magistrates and Judges in managing the progress of cases and reaching decisions; the Department of Correctional Services in ensuring persons in custody remain in custody and are available for transport to court at the correct time; and even the Legal Aid Board in providing a reliable service that ensures the smooth and speedy conclusion of cases. Not forgetting the court administrator and interpreters playing their part as well.

All these interdependencies means that the NPA must build good collaborative relationships across the whole justice system value chain. The Governance, Public Safety, and Justice survey, published by Statistics South Africa for the year 2024/25, estimates that the percentage of ordinary South Africans who believed that to improve their services, the main thing to be done was for prosecutors to work closer with SAPS was at 28,3%.

This means that a significant part of the population recognised that the working relationship between the NPA and the police was not at a level that is good for the delivery of justice to the victims of crime.

The NPA must pay attention to the development of the necessary capacity and capabilities for the fulfillment of its mandate. The capability review conducted by the NPA identified skills gaps that must be addressed to strengthen your prosecutorial work amid shifting criminal threats.

Cybercrime, financial forensics and project management were identified as the specialized skills gaps that need to be urgently addressed. This means as young prosecutors who are entering the profession these are the areas which you must develop capabilities.

Experts on cybercrime say that South Africans have become a target of cyber-crime because criminals not only know that our law enforcement agencies are not equipped to detect and fight cyber-crime, but they also know that we are very lax when it comes to securing our devices.

It is estimated that 70 per cent of South Africans have fallen victim to cybercrime and other risky behaviour, compared to 50 per cent globally. And 47 per cent of South African Smartphone users had experienced mobile cybercrime in the past 12 months, compared to 38 per cent globally. In South Africa, cybercrime has an economic impact equal to 0.14% of the national GDP – about R5.8 billion a year.

According to INTERPOL AFRICA CYBERTHREAT ASSESSMENT REPORT 2025, South Africa remains a top target, especially in finance and government. These attacks are particularly concerning because of their high financial impact, their potential to severely disrupt critical infrastructure, and the damage they inflict on affected organizations and individuals. One of the most prominent was LockBit, which claimed responsibility for an attack on South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF). Another one was the BlackSuit, which attacked South Africa’s National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) in June 2024. This incident disrupted diagnosis for millions of medical tests, forced cancellations of critical surgeries, and compromised more than 1 Terra byte of highly sensitive data.

As our economy become more digitised these types of cybercriminals will also multiply, and for us to build trust on our criminal justice system we need to build the necessary capacity and capability to fight cybercrime.

As aspiring prosecutors, you are entering the profession at a time when the criminal justice system is undergoing extraordinary public scrutiny. The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System, commonly known as the Madlanga Commission, the Nkabinde inquiry, and the Adhoc committee to Investigate Allegations made by Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the Khampepe Commision focusing whether there was interference with prosecution of apartheid crimes, have placed a spotlight on the criminal justice system, in a manner that can either erode or renew trust in the criminal justice system.

I think we can all agree that level of infiltration of organised crime syndicates into our crime fighting institutions, as exposed by these inquiries, has left ordinary citizens of our country in shock and fear.

Undeniably, organised crime has emerged as one of the most corroding phenomena for the criminal justice system in the recent past. Organised crime includes a variety of economic crimes, including theft and vandalism of infrastructure, extortion in the construction sector, illegal mining, gang violence, cash-in-transit heists and cybercrime. Prosecuting such crimes has proven to be lengthy and complex as it involves many players including some compromised individuals within the criminal justice system who become obstructive and also lead the sabotage of such cases.

It is for this reason that we have to intensify the effort to recover monies and properties that have been attained through criminal or illegal means utilising the asset forfeiture unit. The fastest way we can deliver justice to the victims is to deprive criminals of the ill-gotten resources which they then use to delay justice and, in some cases, to evade justice.

In your new strategic trajectory as the NPA, asset forfeiture must be central to crippling organised crime which money laundering, terrorism financing, and related activities. We must make it clear to criminals that crime does not pay.

With regards to GBV the average conviction rate in the past five years has been 73%. This means that there are 27% of potential offenders who have gotten off without being punished for their crime and potentially could have committed more sexual offences.

This statistic excludes cases that have been withdrawn and those that prosecutors declined to prosecute. In South African law, where a prima facie case exists, prosecutors have a duty to prosecute unless a compelling reason exists to decline to prosecute. We might not be able to restore the lives of victims of femicide, we might not be able to repair the psychological damage inflicted on the victim of Rape, but we have a duty to ensure that these victims get justice.

So, when you get an opportunity to assess GBVF cases, bear in mind that there is a life that was lost, there is victim living with irreparable psychological damage and the least you can do for them is demonstrate to them that the law is on their side.

There is no doubt that for the NPA to be able to successfully prosecute these complex cases, they need prosecutors who are capacitated with right skills. Furthermore, prosecutors in the modern world need to be people who believe in lifelong learning, who are adaptive and capable understanding the evolving nature of the social environment in which injustices are perpetrated.

I have no doubt in mind that in this room today we have young men and women who will act in accordance with law and the requirements of a fair trial, consider the views, legitimate interests and possible concerns of victims and witnesses and have the capacity to build a stronger NPA of the future.

Become a support system for each other so that the journey doesn’t become lonely, ensure that you give each other feedback. When one has done well congratulate them as a way of encourage them, when one has messed up give objective feedback so that they don’t make the same mistake but help them learn from that mistake and improve on their work.

As I conclude let me quote one of my favourite quotes by Kwame Nkrumah “Those who would judge us merely by the heights we have achieved, would do well to remember the depths from which we Started”

Once more congratulations for your achievements and wish you all the best for the future.

I thank you.

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