The Real Story of our criminal justice system, and Zuma Inc.
Note to editors: The following speech was delivered in Parliament by the DA's Shadow Minister of Police, Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, during the SONA Debate on Thursday afternoon, February 18 2015
While the SAPS version of Purple Rain was blasting DA supporters outside Parliament last week, where we saw the brutalising and arrest of five DA colleagues, one an MP, here in Parliament preparations were on-going for Scenario One.
Behind the pomp and ceremony, I am told that at each of four doors there were three units comprising five Public Order Policing members; two members of Parliament's Counter Assault Team (CATS) and two Parliamentary staff. A total of 108 Men in White waited for the signal downstairs, while at least another 12 were poised to enter the public gallery.
No life or property was in danger, but the word was given, and the jackboot attack began
Their orders came from the Speaker via the CATS unit.
No single extraction scenario was ever rehearsed - only the removal of an entire political party.
We saw what happened.
Despite the State Security signal blocker, the world saw what happened.
And all potential foreign investors saw what happened.
We were seconds away from Scenario Two: the removal of the some of the Opposition. In enthusiastic expectation of that event, over 60 of those White Shirts were held back outside the four doors of this Chamber. The world watched the President chuckle in delight as the EFF was forcibly removed - and I have no doubt he would have shed tears of mirth had our Leader Helen Zille been manhandled out - and perhaps as I was thrown to the floor and kicked in the face breaking my jaw and nose, as happened to one Honourable EFF member.
The Speaker has seemingly taken over the role of our Minister of Police - ordering SAPS members to enter this chamber, protect the Executive and ‘deal with' those who disagree with the shabby, shoddy manner in which our Democracy is being treated by the Zuma Regime.
She has taken over from a Minister of Police who is in any case totally compromised having, last month, been found to have committed not one but two unlawful acts in suspending the Head of the Hawks - and of putting in his personal choice of Acting Head.
He knew the Constitutional Court had ruled on November 27th that he may not do this, but he did it anyway. Then he realised he was going to lose in Court, and so asked the Police Portfolio Committee to do the job for him!
The Hawks is the unit the ANC created as a sop to the Constitution which calls for an independent corruption-fighting unit - one which ANC members of the Police Portfolio Committee shamefully rendered as toothless as a chicken. The Hawks were left to peck feebly at organized crime, "serious" commercial crime and serious corruption.
Members of civil society who saw they were toothless, fought for and won increased independence for the Hawks by pulling the legislation into line with the Constitution. For the ANC this has been like a red rag to a bull.
Independent thought and action is being hunted down and driven out as we speak. That is why the ANC stepped on and crushed the globally admired Scorpions, and why they today seek to pluck any feather the Hawks ever dare grow.
So when the Head of the Hawks had the unmitigated gall to call for the Nkandla files, of course he had to go - out two days before Christmas, with death threats made to his family. It was taken to court and the order was that he be reinstated immediately.
Bizarrely the Minister of Police is pressuring him to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, illegally pushing retirement contracts under his nose in order to clear the way for a more pliant ANC cadre. The Minister doesn't do the job he's got, yet he's taking over the job of the civilian-turned-General the NPC, the same NPC who was protected in the PPC this morning, shielded from questions by crushed ANC members. I have never been ashamed to belong to this committee before, but I was this morning.
That is this President's ANC:
Look askance at the President and you're out.
Look askance at any of his rich supporters, and you're out.
Look at Nkandla with anything but moon-eyed admiration, and you're out.
From SARS we heard, "Mr President, Pay us the taxes"- and out they went.
Just 47% of citizens trust the SAPS today, as they brutalise civilians and bungle thousands of criminal cases.
Then there is the Special Investigative Unit, the SIU. Where are the investigations into Hon Bheki Cele and what he did in terms of never calling tenders as the NPC? Who made inordinate amounts of money during his two disastrous National Police Days? Or the criminal charge the DA laid against him after the release of the Public Protector's report that saw him fired? Swept under the carpet because he is from the Nkandlaland.
Then the recently-appointed head of the Unit spoke the dreaded words, "Mr President, Pay for Nkandla", and he, too, found himself walking off into the sunset.
Then there is our National Prosecuting Authority - the NPA. It has been increasingly politicised and now we have a head who seems far too determined to do the right thing without fear or favour, so is being subjected to the same sort of witch-hunt as Dramat and the others are.
It was the NPA under Mokotedi Mpshe, a man who is credited with taking the decision to drop 783 charges of corruption levelled against President Zuma for undue political reasons, as the recent release of the Spy Tapes reveals.
The reasons to drop the charges were baseless, irrational and should therefore be set aside.
Finally let us look at the Anti-Corruption Task Team (ACTT) South Africa's highest profile corruption-fighting body, tasked with fast-tracking high-priority corruption investigations.
It is chaired by the head of the Hawks and the Deputy is the Head of the SARS anti-corruption unit, both of whom have become victims of this tidal wave of high level purges.
During his term of office we have seen the Scorpions crushed; the NPA trussed; the Hawks plucked; SARS purged; and the ACTT chained to the floor.
Mr President, powerless anti-corruption units are no anti-corruption units at all but of course you have 783 "good" reasons for that, don't you?
Issued by the DA, February 18 2015
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