Hon Speaker, I know that there is a great deal of impatience in the nation and a measure of impatience that almost wants to see a conflation of the roles that the executive plays and the roles of independent institutions that we have set up in terms of our Constitution. We cannot have a situation like that; where the executive is the one that is the executioner of, for instance, justice or prosecution.
We have institutions like the NPA; we have investigative institutions like the police, like the Hawks and like criminal intelligence, and all those are institutions that were clearly and carefully set up by our Constitution to deal with the matters that are germane to the area that they operate in.
The NPA is the one that initiates prosecutions, of course following investigations and arrests by the police. They are the ones that we agreed will be independent. We agreed that they
would execute their task without favour, without fear and without prejudice. Let us allow them, as they are rebuilding, repositioning and refashioning themselves, to do the work that they are constitutionally mandated to do. Let us not interfere in the work that they have to do.
I would like to give them space. I would like to give them all the resources that they need to do this work. So, it is they that must take the decisions on who needs to be prosecuted. It cannot be the President. It cannot be the Deputy President. It cannot be the Cabinet. It must be the prosecuting authority that will take that decision. The day the President does so, it basically means that we have gone backwards once again. It basically means we are conflating the role that an independent agency has to play as well as the role that the executive authority has to play.
So, hon Emam, I hear you and I know there is a great deal of impatience across the nation because they want to see justice being done. Indeed, justice will be done. In my mind I know that they will act because we have appointed good people. The head of
the NPA is very capable in her job. She was carefully selected. She will act, together with her other colleagues. They are now rebuilding, refashioning and retraining, and they will be able to take action. Thank you, hon Speaker. [Applause.]
Question 3: