Justice and Constitutional Development Deputy Minister Andries Nel has called on graduates of the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Aspirant Prosecutor Programme to discharge their duties without fear, favour or prejudice.
The Deputy Minister delivered remarks at the graduation ceremony of the 300 budding prosecutors, some of whom will now join the NPA following their graduation.
“As prosecutors, you are legal professionals. However, you are also much more. You are our modern-day Consuls, defenders of our Republic, guardians of justice and the rule of law, lawyers of the people. You ensure that justice is not only done – but seen to be done – and felt to be done by people in their daily lives.
“However, justice is not only served by convictions but through due process and the rule of law, through people having an opportunity to defend themselves – and to be represented in court. Prosecutors are not persecutors. They must be amongst the foremost defenders of the Constitution and the rule of law, by discharging their duties without fear, favour or prejudice,” Nel said.
The programme is run for a year, following which, competent candidates are appointed as entry-level prosecutors providing support for the NPA in South Africa’s lower courts.
Nel told the aspiring defenders of the Constitution that while discharging their duties to the fullest, it is important to remember that “people are not dockets”.
“[You] as lawyers for the people must ensure that the rights of victims of crime are respected and upheld, that victims and their families, especially the vulnerable, are treated with respect and dignity by the criminal justice system.
“Our criminal justice system must never be a source of secondary victimisation. This places an enormous responsibility on you. Remember that people are not dockets, and dockets are not people,” he said.
The Deputy Minister encouraged the young lawyers to conduct themselves ethically as society has placed on them a responsibility to seek “justice and redress for wrongs committed against them, and the society that they form part of”.
“If citizens lose confidence in the power, the capacity, and the will of the State to discharge this duty, they will take justice into their own hands. In time this will result in the replacement of the rule of law by the rule of might – the law of an eye for an eye, the war of all against all.
“For this reason, you must conduct yourselves in the most exemplary manner possible. You must always uphold the highest ethical standards, both in your professional and your personal lives,” Nel said.
