Safeguard the innocent
OUR constitution has been hailed as one of the best in the world. The noble men and women who created it included seven very important words – “all shall be equal before the law”.
But recent events point to a system that is not egalitarian.
In the last weeks we have seen the Deputy Education Minister Mduduzi Manana being treated with kid gloves after assaulting a young woman, Mandisa Duma, at a Johannesburg club.
He confessed to the crime in a recording that went viral, but he was never arrested. He was granted bail without spending a minute in jail.
And just this week we saw our men and women in blue apparently paralysed when they should have been arresting Zimbabwe first lady, Grace Mugabe, after she failed to show up in court charged with assaulting a 20-year-old SA model, Gabriella Engels, at a Sandton hotel.
The consensus among various legal experts is that Mugabe is not remotely eligible for diplomatic immunity and should have been arrested.
For Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to say the ministry issued a “red alert” at all borders so that she could not leave the country is simply not good enough. The two cases suggest the powerful and politically connected are above the law.
But then, perhaps we were naive in hoping our authorities would arrest President Robert Mugabe’s wife after they declined to arrest and in fact, were complicit in allowing Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir to enter and leave this country despite there being an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest for orchestrating ongoing genocide.
Closer to home the Mdantsane police raised eyebrows after releasing a taxi driver who knocked down three children last weekend, killing them. The 22-year-old driver crashed into Unabo Lindani, 7, Lilitha Mnyanda, 9, and Thandolwethu Lindani, 11, while allegedly trying to overtake another vehicle. He then ran away but handed himself in to the police on Monday.
After consultations “with the senior public prosecutor in the Mdantsane Magistrate’s Court” they released him. Police spokesman Nkosikho Mzuku told the Dispatch “a decision was reached to complete the investigation first and refer the docket to him for a decision. Soon after the decision was reached [the accused] was allowed to go.”
Mzuku said the police were still busy with investigations. But it is difficult to understand what is so complicated and why the man was released without first appearing in court. The families understandably feel they have been let down by a system that is supposed to protect the innocent.
If Mbalula wants to rescue the public’s rapidly diminishing sense of trust in the police he needs to do something drastic and do so speedily as day by day South Africans are losing confidence in the police.