DA on break-ins at justice offices

POLICE Minister Fikile Mbalula and the National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams must be summoned to Parliament to explain the lack of progress in investigating the spate of burglaries at criminal justice offices, the DA said yesterday.

“Given the deafening silence from Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula and the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Shaun Abrahams, the DA will request that they be summoned before a joint sitting of the police and justice portfolio committees to brief on what progress, if any, has been made in investigating these seemingly co-ordinated and extremely worrying incidents,” DA justice spokesperson Glynnis Breytenbach said.

This came after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) confirmed that there had been a burglary at the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court and that those involved had targeted the office of chief public prosecutor Matric Luphondo.

Breytenbach said it was disturbing that the break-in was “kept quiet” for nearly a week.

She said the recent burglaries at the Office of the Chief Justice, the Director of Public Prosecutions in North Gauteng and the Hawks in Silverton, as well as those of the SABC in Parliament and the Helen Suzman Foundation, were clearly a co-ordinated attempt to intimidate opponents of President Jacob Zuma’s administration.

She said it was now time that the public and Parliament be given a proper briefing as to what exactly was being done to find the culprits.