Keep eye on ball of state sovereignty

WITHIN four days the offices of two of the country’s law-enforcement agencies have been burgled. First there was a break-in at the Hawks’ Silverton offices on Wednesday. The intruders appeared to know exactly what they were looking, going for computers and hard drives.

Yesterday morning we learnt that the Pretoria offices of the Gauteng North Director of Public Prosecutions had also been broken into.

It’s still unclear what was stolen. But what seems obvious is that these are not ordinary crimes.

Someone seems to be looking for certain information and to know where to find it.

One would imagine that the offices of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and those of the Hawks would be highly secure – meaning that no ordinary criminal would attempt a break-in there.

But whoever is daring enough to burgle these kind of offices either has an inside accomplice or is sophisticated enough to get around the well-secured areas without being detected.

Already the Hawks suspect an inside job in that robbery at Silverton. This is hardly surprising.

But if such secure areas are not immune to rank criminality, then what chance do we stand as ordinary folk. The two robberies at these agencies which are vital elements of our law-enforcement system suggest that lawlessness has taken root to such a degree that our country’s democratic project is unravelling right before our eyes and that we are now a gangster state.

It is no secret that our constitutional institutions and law-enforcement agencies have been highly policitised. And our intelligence services seems more interested in political espionage than in doing its legitimate intelligence work necessary to protect the national interest.

Cash-in-transit heist gangs are also back in full swing – something Bheki Cele crushed during his stint as national police commissioner.

Earlier this year brazen robbers also made off with R200-million worth of foreign currency in a heist at OR Tambo airport. If you’re wondering where our intelligence services were, your guess is as good as mine.

Last week we saw State Security minister David Mahlobo make an utter fool of himself in front of live television cameras, by lying about his department having foreknowledge of the Vuwani riots of last year.

He must really take us for fools. Had they known about Vuwani then why were 20 schools razed to the ground by fire while the government scrambled to coordinate a response.

In March the offices of the Chief Justice were also broken into and sensitive information about our judges was stolen. Clearly this was an act of intimidation, meant to cower our judges.

We have been here before. Towards the ANC’s 2007 conference these kind of dirty tricks emerged as our law-enforcement agencies became involved in the political fight between Jacob Zuma and then President Thabo Mbeki.

Illegal tapping and the surveillance of journalists and politicians was prevalent as the political atmosphere was poisoned.

Is it coincidence that this is all happening again at the same time that damning revelations about the president, his family and his friends the Guptas, looting the state are flooding the public domain? I think not.

Similarly the intimidation of journalists by Gupta mercenaries, Andile Mngxitama’s Black First, Land First group, is surely no coincidence. What the Gupta hiredguns want to do is deflect attention from the real issue of state capture.

The burglaries could be intended to achieve a similar outcome, or to destroy evidence that could convict someone of criminality.

But we must not be distracted by the noise and rather keep our eyes on the most important issue, which is the theft of our country under our noses.

If the government cannot protect its own institutions then the responsibility falls to ordinary citizens to be more vigilant and to the independent media to continue exposing the rot.