27 Mar 2023

The Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) has mainstreamed prosecution guided investigation (PGI) in its criminal process for selected cases, not prosecutor-led investigation, Parliament has heard.

Answering a question in Parliament recently, Minister of Justice, Mr Machana Shamukuni said the prosecution guided aimed to ensure that all elements of evidence required in the successful investigation and prosecution of criminal matters were adequately gathered, preserved and that cases were ready to be registered at court immediately upon completion of investigations.

Mr Shamukuni added that the PGI also aimed at reducing the time taken to complete investigations and curb instances where some evidence was not properly handled or contaminated as well as to improve the conviction rate.

He indicated that in November 2019, the DPP commenced the rollout of the PGI initiative, adding however that the DPP would only give PGI upon request of the relevant agency.

“As part of efforts to expedite the implementation of the PGI the DPP has signed a Memorandum of Agreement and service level agreements for implementation of prosecution guided investigation with Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC, Botswana Police Service, Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA), Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS). 

Implementation commenced in November 2019 and is ongoing,” he said.

Consequently, the minister told Members of Parliament that he was unable to provide an answer on the turnaround rate of arrests and investigated cases time because he did not have information pertaining to arrests and investigations as that fell under the purview of Botswana Police Service.

He explained that the DPP management of criminal matters started when it received a docket from investigating agencies for assessment and determination of the criminal matter.

“If there is sufficient evidence to prosecute a matter it would be registered before the courts then the trial process would start at court until there is a judgement. 

Once the case has been registered at court the trial proceedings are managed and determined by the magistrate or judge,” explained the minister.

On one hand, he said the DPP handled various forms of matters that had been reported and investigated by the police.

“Out of the 962 criminal cases completed from April last year, 672 cases have been prosecuted within the target of 18 months which represents a turnover rate of 70.1 per cent,” he said.

MP for Maun East, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile had asked the mister to brief Parliament on the turnaround rate of arrests and investigated cases successfully prosecuted in courts.

Mr Kekgonegile also wanted to know the prosecution rate of reported and investigated cases. He further wanted to know if the minister would consider ‘prosecution led investigation’ as a solution to cases being dismissed at the DPP or courts due to lack of evidence. ENDS