The aspirant prosecutors programme, on hold for years because of lack of funds, has started up again, creating a pool of future prosecutors.
The hardest part of being a new prosecutor is deciding whether to oppose bail, says trainee prosecutor Tumisho Maleka.
It’s hard, Maleka says, because incarceration is a massive incursion into someone’s freedom — which is guaranteed by the Constitution. An accused person is also presumed innocent. To keep them incarcerated — throughout the numerous postponements that are a regular feature of every criminal prosecution — is “a prejudice” to them.
In the NPA’s latest annual report, the staff vacancy rate was 21%, with 1142 vacant posts of a total 5550. This week the NPA told Parliament that, as of December, there were now 1351 posts vacant. Maleka was one of these. He had been an administrative clerk in the justice department, studying for his LLB, part time. Now, he is studying for a master’s in criminal law, he says.
More importantly, the programme has been crucial in creating a pool from which prosecutors can be drawn. “I can proudly, proudly, proudly say that our retention rate is about 96%,” says Rangaka. She says when she sits on interview panels for senior posts in the NPA, sometimes a candidate will remind her: “Advocate Rangaka, don’t you remember me? I was one of your aspirants.”
Maleka is indeed calmly confident as he gets through his roll this Tuesday morning. He answers all the magistrate’s questions, he quietly objects when one of the private attorneys tries to pull a fast one. He is polite to the queue of people — accuseds, witnesses, lost family members, defence attorneys — waiting to see him during the tea adjournment.
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