12 Jul 2020

The  Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is in the process of taking over prosecuting duties from the police.

Briefing the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last Friday, DPP director, Advocate Stephen Tiroyakgosi noted that they operated from six offices around the countr, including the Gaborone region.

Adv. Tiroyakgosi, however, said the takeover in the Gaborone region would last for five years because the process needed resources. He noted that they would need to replace over 200 police prosecutors who were handling cases in magistrate courts.

“But I must also caution that there are some minor matters that are prosecuted at customary courts, and because we do not have rights of audience there as lawyers, those would continue to be prosecuted by the police,” he said.

Adv. Tiroyakgosi told the PAC that they had around 7 800 cases, including pending and ongoing, and that there were also about 13 000 which the police had indicated they were ready to prosecute.

He also noted that the DPP had about 170 prosecutors, both at professional and technical level to augment their prosecuting capacity.

On why the DPP was slow in prosecuting high profile cases which involved elite corruption, Adv. Tiroyakgosi explained that the basic rule of dealing with cases was to follow the evidence, hence the delay.

He said the DPP would continue to prosecute with integrity, adding “we will obviously continue to have shortcomings because some cases are very complex.” Ends