A high level two day workshop was conducted from 14 August 2017 between the Directorate for Public Prosecution under the leadership of Advocate Moipone Noko and the top leadership of South African Police Service led by Major General Bala Naidoo.
There were 40 representatives from NPA which included all the Chief Public Prosecutors as well as Senior Public Prosecutors and some deputy DPPs within the Province. There were also 40 representatives from the South African Police Service which also included the Provincial Heads of the General Investigation and Organised Crime as well as Cluster Detective coordinators and other senior officers from the Provincial office.
The aim and objective of the workshop was to ensure proper investigations and successful prosecutions in all serious cases which includes murders, sexual offences and armed robberies as well as to ensure service delivery to the community. During the workshop the South African Police Service and National Prosecuting Authority came up with a joint plan to deal with these serious cases with the aim of extending the focus in the near future to deal with other less serious crimes also.
Due to the focus being on serious cases, all Regional Courts were represented in the workshop as it was aimed at encouraging mutual cooperation and a good working relationship between the prosecutors and detectives.
“Similar workshops will be conducted at Clusters within the Province to address serious crimes. All parties agreed that there will be follow up meetings and workshops at least twice a year at Provincial level. Currently there are NPA, SAPS meetings that are taking place in Clusters on a monthly basis which further promotes and maintains a mutual working relationship between SAPS and NPA.
With regards to these specific cases, experienced prosecutors will be identified to ensure that they are involved during the investigation which will ultimately lead to successful convictions and prosecutions,” said Major General Naidoo.
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