Sechaba ka’Nkosi KwaZulu-Natal’s head of the elite Scorpions investigative unit, Chris MacAdam, is to be replaced by Shamila Batohi – the prosecutor who took on Hansie Cronje during the hearings into the cricket scandal two months ago. The Mail & Guardian has reliably learned that MacAdam will be transferred to Pretoria as an adviser in Bulelani Ngcuka’s National Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
The diminutive Batohi has been a lawyer for 15 years. She is one of six deputy directors of public prosecutions in the province. Asked why Batohi had been selected for promotion, a senior provincial prosecutor said: “She has passion. She understands the law and she is not easily intimidated. In fact, she is one of the few prosecutors in the province with a relatively clean background.” MacAdam, meanwhile, is expected to join Ngcuka’s truth and reconciliation section – a division tasked with bringing charges against those implicated in the truth hearings who failed to apply for amnesty. The move is understood to have the backing of some of the national office’s most senior staff in Pretoria. One of MacAdam’s more controversial decisions was his release from custody of Mbongeleni Mtolo – a notorious Richmond henchman implicated in the brutal slaughter of eight patrons at a local tavern while watching the 1998 World Cup. After his release Mtolo was implicated in another massacre, and subsequently died when his rifle jammed in a shoot-out. MacAdam then arrested Director Eric Nkabinde and Captain Sipho Mbele, two prominent policemen who had reputedly made inroads into probing the Richmond killings, on charges of defeating the ends of justice.
Dismissing the charges, regional magistrate Fred de Beer blamed the Scorpions for bungling the investigation of the Tavern massacre and said MacAdam was the person who should have been charged with defeating the ends of justice. Neither MacAdam nor Batohi could be reached for comment. Batohi was attending the International Prosecutors’ Conference in Cape Town, while MacAdam’s office said he was also out of town. Ngcuka’s representative, Sipho Ngwema, couldn’t confirm or deny MacAdam’s imminent departure from the province. “It is possible. We are indeed considering some changes in the department in order to strengthen some of our directorates when dealing with critical investigations and prosecutions,” he said. “She [Batohi] has good credentials. That stands her in good contention to be deployed anywhere the [national] directorate deems fit.” Batohi’s promotion could pave the way for high-profile political prosecutions in the province – including the murder of prominent African National Congress MP Bheki Mkhize last month. The trial of three policemen arrested for Mkhize’s murder could be the biggest test in her new position.
Two years ago Ngcuka moved former KZN attorney general Tim McNally to Pretoria in what was thought to be the first real decisive step in transforming the criminal justice system in the province.