Prosecuting authority in damages settlement with prosecutor

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has settled a multi-m i l l i o n rand damages case after it was sued for allegedly arresting a prosecutor who, at the time, was representing the state in one of the province’s largest child pornography and sexual offence cases. The NPA's Advocate Mthunzi Mhaga said the details of the settlement with Vicky Rossouw were confidential, but he could confirm that an agreement had been reached. In 2022, a Jeffreys Bay man was charged with more than 700 offences relating to the illegal possession, manufacturing and distribution of child pornography as well as child trafficking, rape, sexual assault and bestiality. The Daily Maverick reports that he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in April 2025. The court found that he had abused children in his care for seven years between 2015 and 2022. He was living with the mother of some of his victims, but one of the complainants was his biological child.

Judge Nyameko Gqamana noted that the children testified that they were exposed to pornography from as early as the age of 10. One of the complainants further detailed how her father had sexually assaulted her. DM notes that the judgment continued that the evidence before court showed that the accused had called Rossouw and spoke to her about this incident, as well the sexual molestation of his other children by his stepson. ‘Despite such discussions with the aforementioned prosecutor, he did not report such incidents to the police. On his own evidence, there was no valid defence from not reporting such incidents,’ the court continued. In 2022, before the case went to trial, Rossouw was arrested for failing to report the same case of sexual abuse of a minor. She has always denied this. The charges were later withdrawn against her.

Rossouw sued the NPA in the Eastern Cape High Court (Gqeberha) for R6m in damages, arguing that neither Constable Wimpie Azenha from the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit in Humansdorp nor her own colleagues, Advocate Indra Goberdan or the Humansdorp control prosecutor Nita Mentz, had properly investigated the case before arresting her. In her original papers before the court, it was mentioned that the police did not take a statement from her that could have been entirely exculpating. Mentz also wrote to civil society group AfriForum, using the transcript of the phone call referred to in the judgment, to complain about the charges being withdrawn against Rossouw. According to papers before the court, Rossouw was arrested on 7 November 2022 and detained in a police car before she was released on warning. In May 2023, the charge against her was withdrawn by the Eastern Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Barry Madolo. DM notes that she resigned at the end of 2023. Rossouw confirmed that she had reached a confidential settlement with the NPA.