ACDP responds to President's State of the Nation Address

ACDP SPEECH
BY REV KENNETH MESHOE, MP;
PRESIDENT, AFRICAN CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY 13th February 2008

(Greeted with much applause in the House)

REPLY TO THE PRESIDENT’S STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS
Speech by ACDP President, Rev. Kenneth Meshoe MP

13 February 2008

Madam Speaker, Honourable President, deputy President and Honourable Members,

The announcement made yesterday by the Minister of Safety and Security that the Scorpions will be dismantled and merged with the police organized crime unit must be rejected with the contempt it deserves. It is scandalous, irresponsible and highly questionable to target a very successful crime busting unit when South Africa’s crime levels are amongst the highest in the world.

The Minister also said that the ANC was not being reckless in disbanding the Scorpions. The truth is, the ANC is reckless and I believe this decision is a serious blunder that will come back to haunt them in the near future.

I want to remind members of this house that the Scorpions were constituted following a careful study of policing systems in other countries. This was made clear by the then Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee for Justice and Constitutional Development, honourable Fatima Cochan-Kota, during a debate in the National Assembly on the 11th November 1999.

She pointed out that her Committee had undertaken a visit to the United States and Canada to study, among other things, their crime-fighting structures and institutions. She continued to mention the fact that the prosecution-driven investigation was not only successful in the U.S. and Canada, but also in Germany and Britain. In our case, the Scorpions have had between 80% and 90% success in all their prosecutions.

The ACDP wants to know why anybody in their right mind would want to disband such a successful unit, except of course, to serve their questionable motives.

May I also remind this house that the Scorpions was instituted because of the failure of the police to deal with organized crime.

When President Mbeki announced the formation of the Scorpions in June 1999 he said it was a signal of government’s commitment to deal with priority crimes. Today, the ANC has discarded that committee to the delight of leaders of organised crime.

When the then New National party leader raised what he described as serious questions about the establishment of the Scorpions, the then Justice Minister, Penuell Maduna, said that, “the criminal element should be the only ones who worry about the Scorpions.” The honourable President may or may not agree with members of the public who suspect that it is the ‘criminal element’ within the ANC who worry about the successes of the Scorpions that have no regard for political connections!

The Constitutional Law Professor George Devenish said that “the proposed disbanding of the Scorpions must be seen for what it is, an unscrupulous attempt to centralize naked power in the ANC politicians and their cadres deployed in the management echelons of the police.”

Our nation is ravaged by crime, and it is scandalous that the decision to disband the highly effective and successful Scorpions will be forced through parliament, even though the majority of South Africa, many of whom are victims of serious, violent crime, are opposed to it.

Mr President, do you agree with those members of the public, that say that the real motive for disbanding the Scorpions is to protect powerful ANC politicians from investigation? Is it perhaps because the ANC wants to remove the Scorpion investigators and prosecutors from the Jackie Selebi case which is scheduled to be heard in August? Many surmise that without those competent Scorpions prosecutors, the suspended National Commissioner will be acquitted, and this will pave the way for him to be the head of the newly organized unit of the South African Police Service that has many corrupt elements within it.

Madam Speaker, on Monday, the acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Adv. Mpshe is reported to have filed an affidavit in which he said, under oath, that not only information, but also evidence of suspended Commissioner Selebi’s wrong doing was presented to President Mbeki and the Justice Minister Bridgette Mabandla. He also said the President himself was kept fully informed of both the fact of the investigation against Mr Selebi and the nature of the allegations against him. He added that besides there being constant communication between advocate Pikoli, President Mbeki and Justice Minister Mabandla, Advocate Pikoli also informed other officials, including Safety and Safety Minister Nqakula and Defence Minister Lekota of the corruption claims against Mr Selebi.

This stands in stark contrast to the claims made by the State President last month that he only became aware of the charges a few days earlier. To compound matters, President Mbeki then told the media, "I have said this before, many times, that if there was anybody with information that shows Selebi has done wrong things, I would act on it. Nobody did, nobody came to me.”

Mr President, the ACDP believes that in the light of the very serious revelations contained in Adv Mpshe’s affidavit, the State President owes the public an explanation, and must tell the truth as to exactly when the President became aware of the serious allegations against Selebi and why he failed to then immediately suspend Selebi. The public is also owed an explanation of how a draft copy of the top-secret letter dated 7th May 2007, from Adv. Pikoli to President Mbeki about Commissioner Selebi, ended up in Selebi’s hands.

The ACDP also therefore renews its call for the disbandment of the Ginwala Commission and the re-instatement of Adv Pikoli, particularly because government was at all times fully informed of the case against Mr Selebi by Adv Pikoli himself.

These are very grave allegations that go to the heart of the President’s integrity. The State President must admit or deny that the main reason for suspending Adv. Pikoli was not because of a breakdown in relationship, but a deliberate attempt to cover-up for Mr Selebi.

Another major weaknesses of this government is in the area of maintenance. Government has spent money in putting up new buildings and roads without a proper maintenance plan and as a result, the existing road infrastructure is deteriorating very fast.

While roads in Cape Town City centre are not in a bad condition, one cannot say the same about other cities including Pretoria, our administrative capital. Most of our roads are badly damaged and have many pot holes that are ignored by relevant councils. One at times wonders what the city managers and local councillors are paid to do?

When you spoke about building the infrastructure, Mr President, did you also have road infrastructure in mind? If yes, why is the maintenance and repairs of our roads not an Apex priority?

In terms of the power crisis, the ACDP believes that some of the reasons we have blackouts is because Eskom has neglected maintenance and failed to plan for emergencies.

It is also highly suspicious that the crisis occurred so soon after the coming-on-stream in Mozambique of the Mozal Smelter, which preceded the significant growth in South African power consumption. Whilst one appreciates that we must honour our contractual obligations with other countries, would it not have been prudent to ensure that there was sufficient energy for our own Gold and Platinum mines before contracting external customers.

Is it that the ‘powers that be’ fail to value maintenance of equipment and regard money spent on it to be unnecessary, hence the retrenchments that followed. That ill-informed decision has cost the country billions of rand today.

This is why the ACDP advises government to make maintenance of infrastructure, equipment and buildings a priority. Lack of maintenance is very expensive in the long term, as we have seen with the power crisis and a possible looming water crisis.

It was reported in the Sunday Times that, and I quote, “Britain is likely to strip South Africa of its visa-free status this year because of rampant corruption in the department of Home Affairs. South Africans would have to fork out £63 (nearly R1,000) and provide fingerprints, facial biometrics and travel documents to get visas.”

We are going to lose this privilege of a visa-free status and be inconvenienced because corrupt Home Affairs officials have been selling genuine passports to people, smugglers, foreign asylum seekers and allegedly suspected terrorists wanting to enter Britain. Because of this criminal activity, British immigration experts say that the South African passport is, and I quote, “no longer worth the paper it’s written on.” This, Mr President is a shame.

Has government lost its fight against corruption in the Home Affairs department, just as it lost the fight against violent crime in this country?”

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

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For more information please contact:
Rev Kenneth Meshoe, MP and President of the ACDP: 082 962 5884

Released by Ms. Libby Norton, Parliamentary Media Attaché, ACDP
Tel 021 40 333 07 or 07 25 70 6361