Politics.za

The Mail & Guardian have published a long and detailed article describing the relationship between Jackie Selebi, Glen Agliotti and their respective organisations: the SAPS and Agliotti’s Palto.

To say the least it’s not very flattering to Selebi.

The arrest of Glenn Agliotti in the muder of mining tycoon Brett Kebble and his previous arrest in a potential R250 million drug/cigarette smuggling operation puts national Police Commissioner in a very very uncomfortable place. Selebi after all did describe Agliotti as “my friend, finish and klaar” and admitted to receiving calls from Agliotti on the night Kebble was murdered.

The questions still surrounding the forensic investigation of the murder are even more troubling. How could Kebble’s car be released from police custody the very next day and be cleaned before forensic investigators had a chance to go over it?

This also puts Selebi’s attempt to put the NPA’s Scorpion’s under SAPS control in a new light. Both the SAPS and the NPA were investigating the murder but it was the Scorpions who made the arrrest.

If ever you were ever in doubt that there is something really really wrong in the Dept of Home Affairs then read this nightmare story about how the department deported David Phadlela, a South African citizen, to Zimbabwe for not having his ID book with him on the street (and you thought the days of carrying a ‘dompas’ were over). That the victim only received R40 600 in damages is nothing short of an embarassment. But to me a suprising revelation was this:

The court ordered that Bosasa Operations Pty Ltd, trading as Lindela Repatriation Camp, was in default as the company did not defend the action. The company must thus pay Phadlela’s damages.

Hold up. We have private companies operating repatriation camps? How do they get paid? By the number of people they deport? In the US there are entire conspiracy theories based around government and corporate run repatriation camps (meant for specifically for US citizens not illegal immigrants although that didn’t exactly turn out the case here) and lo and behold we actually have it here. This coupled with Home Affairs involvement in the secret and possibly illegal smuggling of terror suspects to Pakistan is probably another reason why the entire department should be shut down and rebuilt from the ground up. I fear they are beyond saving.

David Phadlela is going to go back to court soon to sue the Ministers of Home Affairs and Safety and Security although the asking damages of R76 000 is far too little for this kind of incompetence. His lawyers should add an extra zero on the end as well as demand the resignation of every implicated official in this travesty all the way up to the cabinet level.

Embassies are considered to be sovereign territory, so I wonder if the sustained criminal assaults on embassies and consulates in Pretoria might be heading to the UN security council soon?

One of the biggest civil rights infringed upon during Apartheid (especially during the State of Emergency years) was detention without trial. Back then the NP government could snatch whoever they wanted off the streets, jail them for a month or two, dish out a beating every now and then before dumping them on the front porch. That’s probably one of the reasons why it is guaranteed in the Consitution that a person, once arrested, will appear in court within 48 hours.

Which makes it a bit distressing to see Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula say that perhaps we need to make that time limit a bit longer. Now this doesn’t quite mirror George Bush’s suspension of Habeus Corpus for certain ‘enemy combatants’ (although some would argue that the SA government has done the same already) but it is certainly something that should be resisted.

I’m all for fighting crime but the way to capture and convict criminals is to have a motivated, effective policing force, backed up by sufficient support units (forensics etc) with an efficient judicial system behind them not by eroding the existing rights of citizens. Let’s hope this goes no further.

You know despite the fact that crime continues to be a big issue in South Africa, sometimes a story comes out that makes you feel like police are actually trying. A story like this:

A man wanted for a cash-in-transit heist in Brackenhurst, Alberton, was arrested on Sunday, said Ekurhuleni metro police spokesperson Inspector Jimmy Maboko.

Metro police were stopping cars at random while monitoring the funeral procession of an alleged cash heist kingpin in the Katlehong township near Germiston.

While checking people through the morpho-touch fingerprinting machine, it emerged the 27-year-old was wanted in connection with the heist.

Now that’s the kinda cajone’s we need. Give whoever organised that operation a promotion!

Moneyweb has two opinion pieces today on possible presidential contenders. Barry Sergeant writes about Tito Mboweni calling him ‘Zuma’s Nemesis’. Mboweni has long been put forward as a potential contender by many who have been impressed by his governorship of the Reserve Bank. It’s a logical choice considering that Trevor Manuel still insists he doesn’t want the top job (which we’re still in denial about by the way), as people look to the next ‘fiscally conservative’ ANC politician in line. Should it be absolutely certain that Manuel has no chance of attaining leadership of the ANC, and therefore leasdership of the country, then I don’t see any obvious reasons why Mboweni would be an unsuitable candidate.

A more suprising choice, in a piece authored by veteran business journalist Alec Hogg, is Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula. Alec gushes over Nqakula saying that ‘Like [Trevor] Manuel, the latent talent is obvious.’ and claims that those within the ANC consider him a very serious contender.

Now what’s interesting about Nqakula is that he is Chairman of the SACP which means that the SACP should be putting their support behind him instead of Jacob Zuma.

So some taxi drivers and some metro police decided to get into a fire fight in Hillbrow yesterday. Now while that alone is a kak situation, a quote from metro police spokesman Edna Mamoyane caught my eye:

Some of those not arrested came back and started opening fire on the police. They were obviously showing solidarity for their colleagues.

No Edna, if they had gone to the police station where those arrested had been taken and held a candlelight vigil outside all night while singing “We Shall Overcome” that would have been showing solidarity. What you’re describing is attempted frickin’ murder.