South Africa’s DA says anti-corruption unit has lost credibility and should be scrapped
The Democratic Alliance is pressing South Africa to shut down the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption and replace it with a new body outside the Nat...
The Democratic Alliance is pressing South Africa to shut down the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption and replace it with a new body outside the National Prosecuting Authority. The party says the current unit has been so damaged by recent testimony and structural flaws that it can no longer be fixed.
“Beyond repair”
DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach said the unit’s credibility has been “fatally tainted” and argued that no internal overhaul would be enough. “You cannot fix it,” she said. “There is no bandaid big enough to fix it. It must be disbanded.”
The party wants a fully independent anti-corruption commission created through its own law as a Chapter Nine institution. Breytenbach said that would give the body security of tenure, control over its own budget and protection from political pressure. She said investigators should be able to do their work “without fear, favour or prejudice” and answer to the Constitution, Parliament and the courts, not to party power.
Pressure builds after testimony
The call comes after testimony at the Madlanga Commission by several IDAC employees, including its former head Andrea Johnson. The DA says those accounts reinforced long-standing concerns about the directorate’s performance and independence.
Critics of the current setup argue that IDAC’s position inside the National Prosecuting Authority leaves it exposed to political influence. That complaint has now moved from the margins to the centre of the debate, with the DA saying the problem is structural, not personal.
Not just a leadership problem
Good Governance Africa has also backed the idea of a new agency. Its executive director, Karam Singh, said South Africa should create a fully independent anti-corruption body with the powers and resources needed to take on high-level corruption. He said IDAC was originally meant as a temporary answer, built around a prosecution-led model similar to the former Scorpions, but was constrained from the start.
Singh pointed to the resignation of former IDAC head Hermione Cronje as evidence of those weaknesses, citing operational inefficiencies and a lack of independence among the problems that have dogged the unit.
The DA says only Parliament can close IDAC and make way for a Chapter Nine institution. For now, the political argument is shifting from who should lead the unit to whether it should exist at all.
