The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) Aspirant Prosecutor Programme is under threat, as budget cuts start to bite.
Justice Minister Ronald Lamola told Parliament the group, which will complete its prosecutorial training this month can’t be employed by the NPA this year because there’s no money to pay them.
The internship programme is intended to give Law graduates the training they need to take up positions in the country’s courts.
But its 2024 programme was put on hold in 2023 following the budget cuts.
A flagship programme of the NPA, the Aspirant Prosecutor Programme produces around 300 graduates a year.
The 12-month programme gives law graduates in-service training to become state prosecutors in the lower courts.
They earn between R228 915 and R264 891 while in training.
In a written reply to a Parliamentary question from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Lamola said there’s no money to employ the current crop of soon-to-be graduates in district court posts as has been the tradition.
However, Lamola said the NPA is considering another option to keep the graduates within the NPA’s employ through their current contracts.
Lamola said further budget cuts for the next three years will have a devastating impact on the NPA, to the extent that it will struggle to even pay existing staff.
The NPA advertised for new prosecutor trainees last August but mere weeks later announced it was putting the programme on hold.
Lamola has now told Parliament under the current budget circumstances, a new intake for 2024 will be virtually impossible to accommodate.
-EWN
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