Justice Minister Thembi Simelane has denied her department was hindering the NPA from gaining access to a large digital evidence database gathered by Zondo Commission investigators.

According to a News24 report, she claimed there was never an instance in which information was withheld.

‘All law enforcement agencies, be it SIU, Hawks or SARS, utilise the same system to request information. … there is no information that has been denied to any agency that is investigating or intends on carrying out investigations, including SOEs,’ said Simelane.

Her comments come after News24's investigations team detailed how the Justice Department was blocking access to vital state capture evidence and stalling the permanent establishment of the Investigating Directorate (ID).

‘We have the Human Research Council and the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) assisting us with the unstructured data because the commission did not go through everything that was presented verbatim. The ID is not an exception to that,’ she said.

The Minister said NDPP Shamila Batohi had raised the issue of upgrading Regulation 11 during a meeting last week.

Regulation 11 was instituted during the Zondo Commission, and was a mechanism allowing the ID to gain access to evidence presented during the proceedings, observes News24.

‘That is what allowed the process to move from the ID having to submit a subpoena, to submitting a direct request – and, in turn, as a response, we trained about 37 officials from the NPA to be able to log into the system and have access,’ she said. 

However, she said her department was the custodian of information pertaining to the commission's work and, as such, a request was necessary if other bodies of the state required information. 

‘I would like to believe that the NPA is an entity within the department... we should be able to work around the system and see how we can ensure that we cut the time and prevent any delays, which have not been indicated to us,’ she said. 

News24 revealed that the NPA and ID had lost access to this large digital evidence database, and the trove of incriminating information it contained, because of a lack of maintenance. As such, it placed state capture prosecutions in jeopardy.

Batohi told the media on Friday the reality was that the ID did not have the access it needed to properly investigate cases related to the commission's work.

‘But I am pleased the Minister is looking urgently to find a resolution because we do need to move quickly with these cases because the protocols to request are not ideal for optimal investigations,’ said Batohi.

Full News24 report