/ 15 August 2008

DG blurs boundaries

The African National Congress's campaign to shut down the Scorpions is being bolstered by direct assistance from Justice Director General Menzi Simelane.

Last Friday, Simelane met the ANC's KwaZulu-Natal leadership to plan submissions to Tuesday's public hearings in Umlazi on the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill.

Between 2pm and 5pm on that day, Simelane attended a meeting at the ruling party's Durban offices with speaker of the provincial legislature Willies Mchunu, provincial secretary Senzo Mchunu, eThekwini regional chairperson John Mchunu and Comfort Ngidi (an ANC legal adviser in the province, and Jacob Zuma supporter).

Both Senzo Mchunu and John Mchunu denied Friday's meeting, but Simelane's presence at the event was confirmed to the Mail & Guardian by two independent sources.

Ngidi, who had made submissions to the hearings at the Umlazi indoor sports complex, said he, as an attorney, "was not at liberty to discuss who my clients are, but I have met with several people to formulate similar strategies [with regard to the Scorpions hearings]".

According to another party source, at a meeting this week to finalise preparations for the launch of the ANC's election campaign, Senzo Mchunu let slip that the party's strategy regarding submissions to the KwaZulu-Natal hearings had been concluded last Friday.

"Senzo was asked by a [ANC] Youth League member about the ANC submissions to the Directorate of Special Operations [the Scorpions] hearings. He said that submissions had been discussed at a meeting on Friday, together with the planning of a petition [to support the disbanding of the Scorpions], which will be signed by people at the election [launch] rally in Umlazi this Saturday."

"It seems that Zuma's backers are determined to bring even government officials on board … especially in assisting them in terms of what they must submit to the hearings," said the source.

According to a person who saw them go into the meeting, and subsequently discussed what took place at the meeting with other party officials, the five got together in an effort to ensure that there would be strong submissions against the retention of the Scorpions at public hearings in the province.

They also discussed the circulation of an anti-Scorpions petition designed to counteract the impact of the signature campaigns coordinated by the Democratic Alliance and by campaigning businessman Bob Glenister.

"The ANC had a rally in Umlazi on Saturday, they said a memo must circulate and get signatures against the Scorpions at the rally," the source said. "It is all part of the programme to ensure that at all gatherings of the ANC, the law-enforcement agencies and the judiciary must be attacked," he added.

Senzo Mchunu said that submissions to the hearings from the ANC were being "handled nationally", but that provincial structures had "made contributions through people friendly to the ANC".

He would not divulge who the "friends" of the ANC were. At the time of going to press, the hearings had heard submissions from South African Democratic Teachers' Union provincial secretary Sipho Nkosi, Ngidi, Simon Zwane of Disabled People of South Africa and Sam Kikine of the International Traditional and Medicine Research Council. All had called for the unit's disbanding.

Senzo Mchunu said the party's submissions had revolved around discrepancies between the much higher salaries of Scorpions investigators compared to those of South African Police Service (SAPS) detectives, and the heavier workloads SAPS detectives carried when compared to the "5% of the crime in the country" which the Scorpions investigate.

He said the "overlap" of investigations between the SAPS and the Scorpions, the "political, rather than criminal nature of their investigations" and the prioritising of "everyday violent criminal activity" rather than white-collar crime were also issues behind the ANC's position.

The meeting with the ANC is the first clear evidence of how far Simelane is prepared to cross the line between civil service work and politics.

 

M&G Newspaper