Xavier Radio Ug News 24 7
The newly appointed National Director of Public Prosecutions Andy Mothibi has emphasised the need to strengthen the Protected Disclosure Act to ensure the safety of whistleblowers.
This follows the recent killings of witnesses and whistleblowers linked to matters before the Madlanga Commission sitting in Pretoria.
Advocate Mothibi says the Justice Department is working on legislative amendments to broaden the scope of the Act and extend protection beyond the traditional employer-employee relationship.
“As it provides, at the moment, its coverage is not wide enough to cover other whistleblowers that are outside of the employer-employee environment. The Protected Disclosure Act, as you read it now, currently, it limits the protection to those who disclose wrongdoing, but in the employer-employee relations space. So, the intent is to widen it up. If I recall well, the Ministry of Justice might have taken out some of the proposals for comments. If they haven’t done that, they will be doing that soon for public comments,” says Mothibi.
Meanwhile, Mothibi says the NPA is working to fill critical vacant positions. He says this is to improve the institution’s capacity to carry out its mandate effectively.
Mothibi briefed the media in Pretoria on the NPA’s strategic priorities. These include the implementation of its Quick Wins Action Plan and other key initiatives aimed at strengthening prosecutorial capacity.
He has emphasised that filling these critical positions remains a priority.
“In terms of capacity, we’ve 17% vacancies rate and as I said we cannot work like that. And all the deputy national director of prosecution roles are all vacant. We cannot run an organisation with an empty Exco. We are moving very fast to make sure that those vacancies are filled. And going down in other divisions, DPPs to the provinces I said to them they must come up with resourcing plan,” he says.
www.sabcnews.com, https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/mothibi-calls-for-strengthening-of-the-protected-disclosure-act/
