Webinar: Promises and Pitfalls - The NPA’s Office for Ethics and Accountability under the Spotlight

Dear Colleague

The National Prosecuting Authority’s Office for Ethics and Accountability (OEA), established in 2023, is a landmark step towards strengthening integrity in South Africa’s prosecution service. For the first time, there is a formal mechanism, as required by the NPA Act, to handle complaints against prosecutors and to promote a culture of ethical conduct within the NPA.

Yet questions remain: housed inside the NDPP’s office and shaped through an opaque regulatory process, the OEA risks being seen as insufficiently independent or transparent. This tension, between the promise of accountability and the danger of cosmetic reform, makes the OEA a critical site of debate about the future of justice and trust in South Africa. It must be asked what the implications are for reform of the legislation and regulations governing prosecutions and prosecutors.

Please join us for a webinar to reflect on the National Prosecuting Authority’s complaints mechanism.

Panelist:

• Lukas Muntingh, Senior Researcher and Director of the Dullah Omar Institute, will present on the history, legal framework and challenges facing the OEA.
• Mbekezeli Benjamin, Legal Researcher at Judges Matter (UCT), will reflect on the complaints mechanism applicable to Magistrates for possible lessons to be learnt for the OEA.

Facilitator: Jean Redpath, Senior Researcher at the Dullah Omar Institute, will facilitate discussions.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Following registration, participants will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

We would like to acknowledge the Open Society Foundations and the Sigrid Rausing Trust for making this webinar possible.