Fight crime, not each other

TEDITOR’S VIEW HIS week, simmering internecine tensions in the SAPS boiled over in Parliament. These tensions have often been reported on, but just as quickly denied by people who should have known better.

On Tuesday, the gloves came off as the Independent Investigative Directorate (Ipid) called for acting national police commissioner LieutenantGeneral Khomotso Phahlane to be suspended pending the investigation into his alleged corruption.

Ipid head Robert McBride has complained that Phahlane is interfering with the probe. Phahlane says no one has the right to suspend him, only the president.

His counter-accusation is that Ipid has been “captured” by well-known private investigator Paul O’Sullivan and, by inference, is doing his bidding to wage an agenda against him.

O’Sullivan, readers will remember, is the private citizen who was responsible for successfully waging what was also termed a vendetta, against former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi. Selebi was ultimately convicted of corruption and jailed, only to be released on medical grounds and to die shortly thereafter.

The point is that if Phahlane has a case to answer, he must answer it.

He dare not interfere. Indeed, most companies make it a policy that all employees are suspended with benefits while being investigated. This helps to safeguard the integrity of the investigation and let justice be seen to be done.

The fact that Phahlane protests as volubly and as forcibly as he does, does his own case no good, at least in the court of public opinion. Thankfully though, these processes are not concluded there but in a court of law.

Sadly this stand-off has led to two groups devoting their time and energy to fighting one another, when their true mission is to fight crime and ensure that those who do the crime fighting are beyond reproach.

The only people who are benefiting are the criminals.

This is a time for unequivocal leadership. Fikile Mbalula, as the relevant minister, should suspend Phahlane while Ipid is given a reasonable period along with reasonable access to evidence and witnesses to build a dossier and present its case.

If it is unable to do this, it must desist in its efforts and Phahlane must be reinstated and allowed to do his job, which is to direct the national fight against crime.

But if there is a case, he must face it – and any consequences.

Finish and klaar!

Don’t expect me to fast for murderers

ISRAEL does not have the death penalty, probably making it unique in the Middle East. Since 1920, 24 861 people have been killed and 35 356 wounded as a result of terrorist attacks.

The leader of the Palestinian hunger strike, Marwan Barghouti, is serving five life sentences for murder. His fellow hunger strikers are not in jail for stealing loaves of bread. They are fasting for certain demands, including access to additional TV programmes.

Who are these prisoners? They include the youngster who showed no remorse after cutting the throat of a three-month-old infant in the It Tamar settlement.

Perhaps also those who recently stabbed a 13-year-old girl to death in her sleep, drivers who deliberately rammed their cars into pedestrians and youngsters who threw rocks at speeding cars.

The worst thing about these atrocities is that these perpetrators were indoctrinated. Their orders probably came from knife-wielding clergy in the pulpit, in what has become known as the “knife intifada”. Their crimes were no doubt lauded by their families and communities.

I have no doubt that they see themselves as partisans fighting for a just cause. But Jews have lived on that land for 3 300 years and, according to international decisions made over the past century, have the legal right of ownership, as well as the historic one.

So although there are those who disagree, the Israeli government has a duty to protect its citizens and punish those who try to harm them. If you have a dispute with someone you go to court – you do not kill him.

In 1947 the territory was partitioned by the UN between Jews and Arabs. In 1948 the State of Israel was declared and immediately attacked by resident Palestinians and surrounding Arab states. All attempts to resolve their differences have come to nought.

During that unprovoked attack, 6 000 Jews were killed and 30 000 wounded – 1% of the total Jewish population.

And we are expected to fast in sympathy with Barghouti and his fellow murderers? DON KRAUSZ Johannesburg

Remember victims of ANC bombing

THIS coming Saturday, we must never forget that it would be 34 years since the terrible Church Street bombing on May 20, 1983 by Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC, in Pretoria.

The bombing killed 19 and wounded 217 innocent civilians.

The attack consisted of a car bomb set off outside the Nedbank Square building in Church Street at 4.30pm on a Friday. The target was the South African Air Force headquarters, but as the bomb was set to go off at the height of the rush hour, those killed and wounded included many civilians.

The ANC later confessed that the cowardly attack was orchestrated by Umkhonto we Sizwe, com- manded by Aboobaker Ismail.

Such units had been authorised by Oliver Tambo, the ANC president, in 1979. At the time of the attack, they reported to Joe Slovo as chief of staff, and the Church Street attack was authorised by Tambo.

As Tshwane Council seem very good at spending ratepayers’ money on changing street names, wouldn’t it be a wonderful gesture of reconciliation to rename 19 streets after those innocent victims who were cruelly murdered all those years back? Mandela would have… EDWARD MITCHELL

Bridgwater

Attacking judiciary is unconstitutional

AFTER reading The Mercury, May 16, (“ANC protests against judiciary”), I get the terrible feeling that whenever decisions go against government, organisations affiliated to the ANC have a whiplash proclivity towards attacking the judges and, through them, the judiciary. This is further exacerbated by calls to make it an offence if political parties “abuse courts” as you report.

Does the ANC realise that such conduct is unconstitutional and that it’s short of treason, as that attack is attacking an integral part of government?

There is a difference between attacking the decision of the judge and attacking the person of the judge. It’s perfectly constitutional for people to critique a decision and, in the process, attack the outcome inherent in that decision. Such sober conduct gives an indication that we have a responsible and robust, as well as active, citizenry, very much in tune with what is happening in our society. There is nothing wrong with that.

What is perfidious is when personal attacks on judges are levelled with total disregard to the principle of the rule of law. There are checks and balances and, like the outcome of the DA-favoured judgment, which is now being appealed against by President Jacob Zuma, the outcome of the Constitutional Court, vis-a-vis secret ballot, has to be understood and then critiqued. Our judiciary is one of the most robust and independent in Africa and I hate to see it eviscerated like the judiciary in Zimbabwe.

As for the outcome of the UDMled case, pertaining to secret ballots, I urge the ANC to focus on the issues that are skewering it and to elect leaders that provide hope for all South Africans going forward. SABER AHMED JAZBHAY

Durban

Humanity is older than 10 000 years

IN RESPONSE to the letter from Robert de Neef, please allow me to add my opinion, which I base on pure logic and testable evidence entirely.

So, De Neef of Howick really thinks that humanity is less than 10 000 years old and the biblical creation story is the only explanation possible? Where to start? How about the oldest human construction of a wall in a cave at Metorora that is 23 000 years old with human skeletons found there? If humans were created less than 10 000 years ago and De Neef’s god decided to wipe out all humanity except Noah and his family where did all the water go and more importantly how did all the racial demographics evolve in less than 6 000 years if that is when the flood happened?

The Bible has many false and disproved references as fact that can be easily found with a Google search so using it as a reference is not sound at all, if De Neef wants to believe it he is welcome to. But has he ever seen or heard this god who is theoretically everywhere but nowhere in particular? Why did this god create the devil if he is so perfect and all knowing? You see where I am going with this, it is impossible to back both faith and empirical science!

De Neef probably believes R Kelly can actually fly as he sang about this and he has the same first name as he does (really, he does!). I, on the other hand do not, this belief phenomenon is a very relative concept but fortunately so is relativity also very strong in physics! I doubt these two factors will balance each other out in our lifetimes. ROBERT NICOLAI

Howick

Zikalala wants the House to be a court

THE KwaZulu-Natal ANC’s protest against the judiciary provides another strong indication of the future political landscape of the country unless such elements are checked (The Mercury, May 16).

Clearly ANC KwaZulu-Natal commissar Sihle Zikalala is bent on positioning Parliament as the gatekeeper on matters of legal recourse.

As such, he shows contempt for the constitutional separation of powers. Whereas Parliament produces legislation, it is prohibited from determining the constitutionality of that legislation.

Notwithstanding the costs involved, the Constitutional Court’s role is to adjudicate on matters brought to its attention. Zikalala has no right to decide who should or shouldn’t seek a Concourt ruling.

It is also extremely disturbing to note that Zikalala and his ilk have disrespected the ruling of Judge Bashier Valley in the case of President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet reshuffle on the basis that it does not suit the ANC. In that respect it is clear that not only does Zikalala pay lip service to democracy but that he sees the courts merely in terms of rubber-stamping politically expedient outcomes. Zikalala’s actions and outlook are the stuff of despots and dictators. DUNCAN DU BOIS Durban