A weak DPP is bad for democracy

Mmegi Editor | Wednesday June 4, 2014 10:29

From the acquittal of murder accused persons, acquittal of corrupt public officers to the acquittal of habitual traffic offenders, the DPP seems incapable of taming these social ills.

Even worse, the DPP has demonstrated its inability to argue its cases when it is required to oppose bail applications by persons suspected or accused of serious crimes. The same people are, hence, in and out of our prisons.

Offenders are arrested, released on bail the following day and find themselves back in society. This is why the rate of re-offences is high and why that of rehabilitation remains low.

Just a few weeks ago, the Court of Appeal was surprised to discover that an appellant was charged with a lesser offence of robbery, when he should have also faced an attempted murder charge.

This week again, Justice Michael Mothobi of the High Court was not amused with the behaviour of a prosecutor whom he accused of taking her job lightly, even with a serious crime under discussion. In fact, the judge expressed concern at the rate at which prosecutors simply send their colleagues to stand in for them without even bothering to communicate with the court on their (substantive officers) whereabouts. They go to court ill prepared for their cases, he said.

This is a bad image for a critical department that plays a huge role in keeping those in authority accountable to the ruled.

This problem can be attributed to central government, which has not done enough to retain skilled, dedicated, and experienced prosecutors.

A few years ago, conditions of service for their counterparts in the magistracy were improved in a bid to retain the few who remained in their jobs. The same cannot be said about officers at the Attorney General’s Chambers where Dr Athalia Molokomme often speaks about the chronic challenge of losing staff to other competitors in the field.

It has never been made public anywhere, by any minister or senior officer, what government’s position on the AG’s plea for better working conditions is.

This then leaves us with one question – why is the DPP not so important to those in power? With very few options, we are forced to believe that the DPP is deliberately left to die by those who are supposed to keep it strong for the main reason that its mandate is an inconvenience to them and their closest friends.

The DPP should offer competitive working conditions for it to retain staff with the necessary skills, commitment, and experience to execute its mandate. Without incentivised working conditions, the DPP is as good as dead, its demise taking with it the country’s rule of law.

                                                                    Today’s thought

Two things form the bedrock of any open society - freedom of expression and rule of law. If you don’t have those things, you don’t have a free country.

 

                                                                     Salman Rushdie