“The statements from the individuals that we ourselves have taken [are] 65‚” said Lebeya.
In a prosecution-led investigation‚ Lebeya said they had dedicated 10 police investigators to the VBS probe.
Acting NPA head Silas Ramaite said at least five senior prosecutors and top officials from the agency’s Asset Forfeiture Unit were part of the multi-pronged investigation which also included the Financial Intelligence Centre.
Ramaite said it was still too early to indicate which individuals were likely to be prosecuted but stated the issue at hand was “bigger than fraud and theft”.
“There has been a lot of focus on the fraud and the theft that took place but the issue is actually much bigger than that from a prosecution point of view.
“We have raised this with the prosecutions team and we’re currently discussing it. It’s in fact racketeering at its worst and that is in respect of the prevention of organised crime because it involves fraud and theft and it also involved reckless trading which is one of the lesser enforced crimes in SA,” said Ramaite.