A bitter clash between the police and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) could result in 250 protected witnesses and their families losing their police guards, the Sunday Times reported.
This could put the witnesses and key trials across the country in jeopardy.
The newspaper established that all 85 operational staff of the Witness Protection Unit had been ordered to vacate their posts from February 28 without replacements because of a disastrous planning breakdown between police and the NPA.
Apart from one NPA manager per province, the police protectors represent the country’s entire witness protection force. Their job is to hide and assist vulnerable witnesses and protect them against assassination.
The 85 specially trained police — who have gone through lengthy screening procedures — fall under the authority of the NPA, but their salaries and costs are paid by the South African Police Service, in a service arrangement that has existed for a decade.
However, the NPA has failed to find the money or trained manpower to replace them since being warned to do so by the SAPS in 2003, the report read.
The shock withdrawal order by National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, made in December, follows a bitter clash between the two departments — which are rivals in a broader struggle for control of the Scorpions — over the mounting costs incurred by the 85 officers.
An unnamed witness protection officer said most protection officers had already been given new posts in the SAPS, starting in March.
He said the Boeremag trial, the British American Tobacco truck heist trial and various ”High Flyers” gang boss trials were among many that would probably be jeopardised.
Anthony Minnaar, a senior researcher for the Department of Security Risk Management at Unisa, confirmed that these and other cases would be at ”grave risk” unless a way was found to retain the officers.
The Sunday newspaper reported that Vusi Pikoli, the National Director of Public Prosecutions, had approached Menzi Simelane, Director General of the Department of Justice, to conduct urgent negotiations with Selebi. – Sapa