ICD must investigate why police obeyed Malema's orders
The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) must investigate why members of the VIP Protection Unit appeared to obey orders given to them by Julius Malema at the ANC Youth League's Limpopo provincial conference.
In video footage posted online by the Times, Malema orders the police to remove rival delegates from the provincial conference venue. Malema also issues direct instructions to a police officer he identifies as "Makushu" - presumably Limpopo provincial VIP protection unit commander, Director Joseph Makushu.
Police are entitled to carry out crowd control in the presence of unruly, disruptive or violent confrontations at events like these. However, it is for police commanders, not people like Julius Malema, to issue orders. It is certainly not for the provincial head of the VIP protection unit to be taking such orders from a private citizen like Julius Malema.
Section 46 of the South African Police Service Act of 1995 mandates that no member of the Police Service should undertake political activities, display support for a particular political body, or act to further any party-political interests. The Police Service Code of Conduct also requires that every police official must "act in a manner that is impartial" and ought to "uphold the Constitution and the law" at all times. The ICD should investigate whether Director Makushu or any other officer in Limpopo contravened the law.
This, we must remember, is a province in which law enforcement officers have already demonstrated hostility towards the rule of law, when confronted with Malema's antics - a case in point being the incident on a Limpopo road in which Malema's car was caught at 107km/h in a 60km/h zone. On that occasion, the police officers who had pulled Malema over were apparently issued letters warning them over their supposed ill-treatment of Malema. It appears that Malema, to this day, has not been fined for the incident, or for the fact that blue lights were mounted on his car, in blatant contravention of the Road Traffic Act. Reports suggest that this is because of the intervention of MEC for Transport in Limpopo Pinkie Kekana. Other reports have also highlighted how Malema had been driving without a valid driver's licence since September 2009, and had failed to pay numerous other fines.
Not for the first time, then, it appears that there is one law for Julius Malema, and another for ordinary South Africans, and the ICD must investigate.
Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of police, June 20 2010
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