ActionSA will on Thursday lead a protest outside Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi’s office, in Pretoria, to demand the removal of the National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Shamila Batohi.

Batohi will be required to vacate her office in January 2026, as she reaches the age of 65, however there have been growing calls for her removal and for reform of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) amid lacklustre performance.

ActionSA cited a “growing list” of failures by the NPA, which it said had rendered Batohi’s leadership “untenable”.

Earlier this month, the party wrote to Kubayi to demand Batohi’s removal, in terms of Section 12 of the NPA Act.

The party has accused the NPA of becoming a “refuge for the politically connected”, alleging regular instances of avoided accountability, delayed justice and collapsed prosecutions.

This comes as a court withdrew charges against former Free State Premier Ace Magashule’s former personal assistant Moroadi Cholota in the asbestos corruption case, owing to her unlawful extradition.

ActionSA had since requested a full parliamentary inquiry into the NPA’s “ongoing prosecutorial failures” and evidence of political interference.

Think tank, Centre for Development and Enterprise executive director Ann Bernstein has advised President Cyril Ramaphosa to not extend Batohi’s term and has recommended a new appointment model akin to the 2019 South African Revenue Service commissioner selection process.

Bernstein urged the strengthening of the entity to successfully prosecute State capture and corruption cases.

She noted that recently Batohi admitted that while the NPA had made progress in some areas, it had failed to successfully prosecute any major State capture cases involving politicians, pointing to the hindering effects from that era, when State institutions were hollowed out

ActionSA pointed out that the NPA continued to be “beset by deep dysfunction, whether through incompetence or wilful neglect”.

ActionSA believes that under Batohi’s leadership, the NPA reels from one scandal to the next.

“Her removal is therefore urgent, and we will be applying every lever of pressure to demand that the Minister of Justice initiates urgent intervention and begins the process of removing Adv Shamila Batohi in terms of Section 12 of the NPA Act,” the party said.