Our+criminal+justice+system,+SACP+Media+Release




 * SACP Media Release, 14 January 2008**

=Our criminal justice system=

The South African Communist Party is deeply concerned and worried about what seems to be a very messy and deteriorating state of our criminal justice system. The reported withdrawal of charges against Scorpion Gerrie Nel crowns a string of very disturbing developments in the past week and before in some of our key institutions of the criminal justice system.

It is now clear to us as the SACP that our government bears enormous responsibility for such a state of affairs, and that it therefore requires urgent attention. Part of the reasons why government bears responsibility is by allowing selective pursuance of justice, as well as failure to take appropriate action where there have been clear instances of abuse of these institutions, like the Hollywood style tactics, and announcements through the media that certain individuals are being investigated, and yet nothing happens subsequently, and people's public standing is damaged in the process.

The SACP calls upon this weekend's ANC NEC lekgotla to pay particular attention to the state of our criminal justice system and discuss possible interventions required to bring some order into these institutions. In addition, the SACP is of the view that parliament as the oversight body cannot simply step aside, but needs to intervene, call these institutions to account for some of their behavior, and urgently tackle the very many problems that are manifesting themselves in our criminal justice system.

The highly unsatisfactory state of our criminal justice system pose one of the most serious threats to our democracy, threatening to erode the confidence of our people in these institutions, making them even more liable to abuse by those in powerful positions and susceptible to infiltration by all kinds of elements with different agendas, including political agendas. More seriously this may seriously undermine the capacity of this system to fight the scourge of crime plaguing our country.

We now have a litany of blunders, clear instances of manipulation of this system such that it is truly turning into a circus, including wasting the time and resources of our judiciary by bringing before it ill-considered or ill-prepared cases, worsening the already intolerable case load before our judicial system.

The litany of cases, include the lengthy abuse of Cde Zuma's rights by the NPA, including the use of media to tarnish individual's images; the emergence of the 'Special Browse Mole' within the ranks of the Scorpions; the exposing of minutes of a secret Scorpions meeting discussing the ANC policy conference; the mysterious circumstances and the cloud that hangs over the suspension of Mr Vusi Pikoli; the whole handling of matters relating to the Commissioner of Police, including court challenges; etc. The list seems endless.

The SACP also condemns the attitude that tends to equate the rule of law only with appearance before a court of law. The rule of law includes the behavior of the organs of the criminal justice system, the manner in which they collect evidence as well as upholding the rights of those being investigated. The single biggest threat to our judiciary is this kind of mess we see in our criminal justice system, and the judiciary cannot simply try and isolate itself from the implications and dangers posed by the behavior of our investigating and prosecuting agencies to our entire legal order.

Amongst other things in these latest developments is that there is clearly a very disturbing, if not dirty, turf war between the Scorpions and the SAPS. This underlines the correctness of the Alliance stance that one police force must be created and that the Scorpions must be urgently incorporated into the SAPS.

The SACP will also raise these concerns at our next Alliance Summit, calling for a very frank review of the state of our criminal justice system and the need for some urgent interventions to sort out these problems and begin to rebuild the confidence of our people in these institutions.


 * Issued by the SACP**


 * Contact: Malesela Maleka, SACP Spokesperson**

By e-mail

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