Umsebenzi Online, Volume 14, No. 03, 11 February 2015 In this Issue: * SACP Statement on Glynnis Breytenbach * Anwa Dramat, the DA and its alliance partner the EFF Red Alert: SACP Statement on DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach Wednesday, 11 February 2015 The SACP notes with serious concern the comments that "Democratic Alliance" (DA) Member of Parliament (MP) Glynnis Breytenbach continues to make about what is going on inside the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). We believe that Breytenbach is severely conflicted and compromised to comment as a neutral person on matters relating to the NPA. Ms Breytenbach still has a lot to answer for about her behaviour whilst she was in the NPA, including very serious allegations of conflicts of interest and corruption on her part. It is a well-known fact that she also went to great lengths to try and sabotage the investigation, including refusal to submit her laptop and attempts at erasing its contents. The SACP remains concerned about the fact that the investigation into Ms Breytenbach by the NPA was not properly concluded and therefore the process, from our standpoint, remains incomplete. As a matter of fact some of the people she is now demonising, abusing her privilege as an MP, were part of the people who were investigating her whilst she was in the NPA. The SACP wishes to place it on record that we will be approaching ANC MPs in the Justice and Correctional Services Portfolio Committee to ask some very pointed questions to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services about why investigations into Ms Breytenbach were not satisfactorily concluded, including serious lack of following up on evidence pointing to very grave wrongdoing on her part. We are of the view that before Ms Breytenbach starts pointing fingers at the President and other people, she still owes the country and the Justice system a full explanation about her own conduct whilst in the NPA. The SACP is also deeply concerned that whilst sections of the media are fully aware of these matters relating Ms Breytenbach, but because she is a DA MP, they have chosen to be conveniently silent. Issued by the SACP Contact: Alex Mashilo - Spokesperson Mobile: +27 82 9200 308 Fixed line: +27 11 339 3621/2 Website: www.sacp.org.za <http://www.sacp.org.za> Twitter: @2SACP Facebook Page: South African Communist Party Anwa Dramat, the DA and its alliance partner the EFF "Transform the judiciary, base the rule of law on a just legal system", says the writer. by Ian Beddowes The recent decision by the North Gauteng High Court sitting in Tshwane is breath-taking in its total disregard for the undisputed fact that Lieutenant-General Anwa Dramat, Deputy Commissioner of the Hawks acted as a willing servant to the notorious and ruthless Zimbabwean Central Intelligence Organisation, as did his accomplices. Most media stories have only mentioned the technicalities of his suspension and totally ignored serious allegations: Dramat ordered the abduction in South Africa of four Zimbabwean political activists; the four were severely beaten here in South Africa before being sent to Zimbabwe where they were subjected to further torture and two were murdered. The act of abduction and sending people to another country outside the provisions of the law is called 'rendition'. Legally, a foreign citizen, following due legal process, can be deported. Likewise, another country can apply for the extradition of any person wanted for an alleged criminal act in that country. Again, due process must be followed, as happened in the case of Shrien Dewani. In the case of Maqhawe Sibanda and Shepherd Tshuma, now in hiding in South Africa and Witness Ndeya and Nelson Ndlovu who were murdered in Zimbabwe following their rendition, no such process was followed. In such circumstances Minister of Police Nkosinathi Nhleko's suspension of Dramat and his accomplices is substantively reasonable. However this is not to say procedural issues do not matter. They do, and surely the Police Minister should be aware about this. Then we hear that the DA and their alliance partners the EFF were challenging the authority of the Police Minister! This begs the question. If the Police Minister does not have the authority to suspend senior officials who commit brutal, illegal and treasonous acts, then who does or should exercise those powers? Further, the Helen Suzman Foundation, named after a person, who, though far from being a revolutionary, was a genuine supporter of human rights, is now defending the right of the police to abuse other people's human rights. Or is it because Zimbabweans have no rights and are not in that category to which human beings belong? As Minister Nhleko said in Parliament: "Having taken into consideration our history, I am convinced that because the lives involved and the lives at stake are those of black people, therefore, all that the colonial forces can do is prop up the debate, and for it to be about the institutional arrangements of the Hawks. Had the lives involved been those of white people, the debate and headlines would have been about human rights." The DA has amongst its members a number of white "Rhodesians". Can anybody imagine their reaction if the Hawks had abducted white DA members of Zimbabwean origin, beaten them and illegally sent them to Zimbabwe for further torture and murder? It is very clear that the DA, with the assistance of such and so-called "left" forces as EFF, is trying to subvert the right and duty of the democratically elected ANC-led government to govern. It is also very clear that the court system which is far from fundamentally being transformed especially by first removing the role that money (i.e., therefore, class) plays in determining access or lack thereof to justice and top quality legal services finds itself acting perhaps as an unwilling partner with the DA politically in order to usurp democratic government. The North Gauteng High Court is notorious for granting eviction notices which has the effect of making black South Africans homeless. It is not surprising, then, that the same court did not take into consideration the rights of those who come from the wrong side of the Limpopo. Neither is this the only court at issue: the legal system. In this respect, we should note that the Constitutional Court is only available to the rich due to the role played by money in initiating and sustaining related processes. The majority of South Africans, however much their constitutional rights are abused, in practice in contrast to paper have no right to bring their cases before it. They have no rights because they have no money. This recent court decision reveals the truth that the Roman-Dutch legal system is only for the Romans and the Dutch: not for Africans; not for anybody else without a massive income. The legal system in South Africa is, in the ultimate analysis, effectively owned by the capitalist class and works for them more than any other and mostly against the interests of the working-class and the poor. Politically things have begun the same shape in several respects. There can be no doubt that it is very much part and parcel of the forces that are hostile to the government to challenge it using the courts after losing or without contesting elections. A trend in underway in South Africa for the courts to usurp the powers of the Executive and directly govern through their rulings. The DA and its friends are very insistent about the "Rule of Law". Law existed under apartheid and was administered in the interests of the white minority and of capitalist interests. Communists are not fighting for the "Rule of Law" without assessing both the content of the law and how it is being administered. Communists are fighting for the establishment of a Just Legal System and in this context for the Rule of Law. Cde. Ian Beddowes, General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Communist League and is based in South Africa due to obvious reasons. -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Umsebenzi Online" group. To unsubscribe from this group, just send email to [email protected] For more options, archives, pages and files, visit the group web site at http://groups.google.com/group/umsebenzi-online?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Umsebenzi Online" group. 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