Beggars and street vendors who thought the directive from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) not to prosecute “poverty crimes” meant that they could go on with their business are mistaken.
NPA head Vusi Pikoli this week said that the authority would be adopting a bias towards the poor and would not prosecute crimes where the suspects were clearly driven by poverty to commit the offences they were charged with.
Johannesburg and Durban metropolitan officials have in recent times been accused of criminalising poverty because of their tough stance against beggars and street traders.
The City of Johannesburg says it does not need the NPA because it has its own municipal court and prosecutors. The city will continue to prosecute all those who flout city by-laws. These include street junction traders and beggars.
Johannesburg’s Metro Police earlier this year rounded up street beggars, charged them and fined many of them up to R100 for begging.
In Durban, street vendors and city police clashed when police removed unlicensed vendors from the streets.
Pikoli said his office would hold workshops with other authorities involved, including the Department of Social Welfare and various local government policing structures to sell the authority’s new approach to prosecuting.
He referred to the decision to drop sedition charges against Entabazwe, the Free State activists who had protested against a lack of service delivery, as indicative of the new attitude.
“But this does not mean poor people who commit crime will not be prosecuted. But we must not prosecute poverty if an offence is committed because people are hungry [and] they should not stay in jail for two or three years. What ruins the national economy is fraud and corruption,” said Pikoli.
Pikoli also spoke of placing the onus for reducing slum areas on landlords. “We should approach courts of law to obtain mandamus to compel owners of buildings to get rid of conditions that breed criminality such as illicit brewing of alcohol.”
The NPA hoped to improve the image of plea-bargaining and sentence negotiation among poorer people to remove the impression that it was meant only for the rich.
“We must avoid Rolls Royce-types of justice where those who have money are seen to be getting a different form of justice. When we talk of bias towards the poor, they should also use plea-bargaining,” said Pikoli.