Media statement by Carl Niehaus about the dismissal of the farcical politically driven Covid-19 case against him
28 June 2022
On the 8 July 2021 I was arrested in front of the Estcourt prison where President Jacob Zuma was illegally imprisoned because of a travesty of justice committed by the Constitutional Court (CC). I went to Estcourt prison the day after President Zuma was incarcerated in order to try and visit him, and to establish his well being.
While I was doing a live interview with SABC TV News at Estcourt prison, I was arrested. The whole nation saw that pathetic travesty of justice and abuse of police power live on their television screens. I was also detained for hours in the holding cells of the Estcourt police station, before I was charged.
Since then the court case dragged on for a year, with me having had to travel to Estcourt to appear in court, at great expense, for no less than five times.
Yesterday, on the 27th of June 2022, only 11 days short of a whole year after I was arrested, the magistrate in this farcical court case accepted my application for a Section 174 discharge/dismissal of the case against me, and threw the whole farcical and politically motivated charade into the proverbial rubbish bin. The magistrate had harsh words for the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), asking why only I was arrested and charged, while the earlier on the same day, when I was arrested, the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, addressed a crowd in front of the very same Estcourt prison, and no one, including the Minister, was arrested or charged. I was evidently specifically targeted with selective persecution, and selective justice is no justice at all!