Chief Justice's office burglary not random

20 March 2017

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) is of a strong view that the recent burglary at the Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s Midrand offices signals a well-orchestrated act not only aimed at undermining the judiciary’s credibility by way of holding judges at ransom, but also exposing our intelligence services as the weakest point in the detection of the recent acts of this nature.

With a total of 15 computers containing confidential information of all the South African judges, judiciary staff and all the courts stolen, it is clear that this was not a random occurrence, and this can be seen as an act of intimidation.

It should never be that such an important institution which administers our justice system as a country falls victim to such humiliation, and we categorically call upon the intelligence services to focus on being proactive instead of being reactive to such recently common outlawed activities.

Issued by Richard Mamabolo, Media and Communications Officer, POPCRU, 20 March 2017