ActionSA said on Friday it will formally write to Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi to demand that Advocate Shamila Batohi be removed as the National Director of Public Prosecutions.

ActionSA wants the removal initiated in terms of Section 12 of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act.

The party has accused the NPA of becoming a “refuge for the politically connected”, alleging regular instances of avoided accountability, delayed justice and collapsed prosecutions.

This comes as a court withdrew charges against former Free State Premier Ace Magashule’s former personal assistant Moroadi Cholota in the asbestos corruption case, owing to her unlawful extradition.

“Under Shamila Batohi’s leadership, the NPA reels from one scandal to the next. South Africans are left wondering if these failures are merely a result of incompetence or is there a deliberate agenda to protect the corrupt,” questioned ActionSA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip.

ActionSA wants a full parliamentary inquiry into the NPA’s “ongoing prosecutorial failures” and evidence of political interference.

Trollip said the NPA had exposed its “deep dysfunction, either through incompetence or wilful neglect”, adding that this was not an isolated “blunder”, but part of what he termed a “disturbing and entrenched pattern”.

“Let us be clear that this is not just about one failed case. The pattern is undeniable. From the Phala Phala saga to the collapse of high-profile cases like Timothy Omotoso, Shepherd Bushiri and the Estina Dairy Project, the list of prosecutorial disasters grows longer by the day. Most damning is the NPA’s failure to secure the extradition of the Gupta brothers, nearly a decade after the Gupta Leaks shook the nation.

“In the most recent financial year, only six State Capture-related prosecutions were recorded, with a target of just 10 by 2027. This is an insult to the South African people, given the R500-billion in economic damage linked to State Capture. Despite lofty promises, there have been zero convictions connected to the Gupta Leaks revelations,” he said.

Trollip pointed out that President Cyril Ramaphosa had the power, through the NPA Act, to provisionally suspend any Director of Public Prosecutions pending an inquiry into their fitness for office.

“His refusal to act is not a procedural matter; it is a failure of political will,” stated Trollip.

“For all his talk of fighting corruption, he remains silent as the prosecutorial system collapses and the corrupt walk free. When those tasked with enforcing the law become enablers of lawlessness, the justice system becomes complicit, not just ineffective,” he added.