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News24 reports that Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) has expressed concern that virtually all of the anti-corruption task team's successful corruption cases have ended with plea bargains and reduced sentences.
In the last three financial years, there had been 41 successful plea bargains in 42 “serious corruption cases” involving more than R5m, the team told Scopa MPs on Wednesday. Twenty-nine of the cases were guilty pleas, and the other 12 were plea bargains. Some included mandatory sentences, but most ended with a suspended five-year jail sentence. MPs across the political spectrum took issue with the fact that the strongest censure was a fine and a suspended sentence. Serial corrupters were being given a "slap on the wrist" it was said. Scopa chairperson Themba Godi said he was shocked that all the cases ended in plea bargains with no meaningful jail terms. But, Justice director-general Vusi Madonsela said he was concerned that the committee thought the settlements were an anti-climax. "I think what might not be fully appreciated is that in our systems, there is a place for a guilty plea and plea bargains," he stated.
- Read this report by Paul Herman in full at News24
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