TUTU: SIMELANE APPOINTMENT AN ABERRATION THAT SHOULD BE REVERSED

"The appointment of Advocate Menzi Simelane as National Director of Public Prosecutions is a setback for the integrity of South Africa's post-apartheid legal system.

"While it would be naïve to expect any government to appoint a director of prosecutions politically opposed to its policies and programmes, the appointment of one whose ready willingness to act on political instructions has been questioned by a statutory commission does nothing for people's confidence in the law.

"South Africa built its constitutional democracy on the rubble of an apartheid system that had the subversion of law as a founding principle. The use of "independent" legal instruments to destroy political opposition was a hallmark of apartheid and a thread that ran through the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

"Surely we should have learned from the past. Surely, after what we have been through, we should place a premium on ensuring the integrity and impartiality of prosecutorial decision-making.

"Simelane's integrity has been questioned from within his own political party and by his profession.

"Appointing a man deemed unfit for the job by a statutory commission led by senior ANC stalwart Frene Ginwala besmirches the office of the NDPP. To witness the professional body of South African advocates - Simelane's peers - considering disbarring him is a national embarrassment. This distresses me deeply.

"Questions on the constitutionality of the appointment will be debated and adjudicated by people who have more knowledge of the law than I have. I have raised my objections to this appointment with Minister of Justice Jeff Radebe and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe (President Zuma was in Trinidad & Tobago.).

"I now appeal to President Zuma to do the right thing. Since his appointment, he  has done much to restore the confidence of South Africans in government.  But the appointment of Advocate Simelane is an aberration. The appointment should be reversed."

Statement issued by Oryx Multimedia, on behalf of the Office of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, December 7 2009

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