ActionSA has given Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi seven days to respond to its demand for the removal of National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Advocate Shamila Batohi, vowing to use pressure to challenge what it describes as the decline of the country’s criminal justice system.

The party marched to Kubayi’s office in Pretoria on Thursday to submit its memorandum, demanding that Kubayi, as the Cabinet member responsible for Justice and Constitutional Development, engage President Cyril Ramaphosa to exercise powers under the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act and initiate the formal process for Batohi’s removal.

ActionSA wants the process to begin with Batohi’s immediate suspension pending an investigation into what it alleges is systemic dysfunction in the NPA.

“… whether through incompetence or wilful neglect, that reflects not isolated blunders, but a disturbing and entrenched pattern,” the party said.

It also expressed concerns that the NPA had become a “refuge for the politically connected”, stating that accountability was avoided, justice was delayed, and prosecutions regularly collapse.

“Supported by victims of the NPA’s failure to ensure that our criminal justice system protects the public and tackles rampant lawlessness, ActionSA’s demand for the removal of Advocate Batohi rests on the lived experiences of those who have been failed by a prosecuting body clearly incapable of fulfilling its mandate,” ActionSA said.

The party said Batohi’s appointment in 2018 was intended to mark a break from the State Capture era, and met with “rare national consensus and a genuine sense of hope”.

“Yet, nearly six years later, that hope has curdled into deep public disillusionment. The institution remains directionless, riven by internal factionalism, and wholly unable, or unwilling, to act decisively against either high-level corruption or pervasive violent crime.

“From troubling vacancy rates across provinces and key units within the NPA, to the failure to prosecute any high-profile cases arising from the Zondo Commission, to botched cases involving Timothy Omotoso, Ace Magashule, Moroadi Cholota and Zizi Kodwa, and the apparent laissez-faire approach to consequence management within the institution, the case for the removal of the NDPP is made by her own widely evident failures as the head of the institution,” the party said.

ActionSA said it believed that the litany of issues affecting the NPA showed that these challenges had festered to a point of crisis, pointing out that many South Africans had lost confidence in Bathoi’s leadership.

“While acknowledging that overhauling and correcting the NPA does not begin and end with the removal of Adv. Batohi, it remains an important first step in demonstrating that continued poor performance will be met with decisive action. South Africans are clear in their demand for us to fight to end the culture of impunity and to put the institution on notice that it must either deliver or face the consequences,” ActionSA highlighted.