Kwazulu-Natal attorney-general Tim McNally responds to criticism that he failed to prosecute senior IFP members for alleged hit squad activities
THE full page report in the Mail & Guardian (August 4 to 10) attacking my integrity is a patchwork of falsehoods which did me great harm. It seems to me that the report has since become a springboard for further attack. Richard Lyster of the Legal Resources Centre in Durban is reported (Business Day August 31) as having said that a sub-committee of my critics has been established to find cases which indicate bias, incompetence or inability on my part. What arrant nonsense! Such cases are not to be found.
There is a theory that the Big Lie has more chance of being accepted by the public than the Little Truth. This is a variation on one of Hitler’s more quotable quotes (Mein Kampf Chapter 10).
The Big Lie portrays me as a person who bungles incompetently along from error of judgment to conduct shaped by political motive in breach of my oath of
An assessment of me by a Transvaal judge in a letter on my appointment as attorney-general gives a glimpse into the Little Truth. He wrote: “Congratulations upon your appointment as attorney-general. It is indeed a well- deserved and much welcomed promotion. You will bring to that high office your erudition and ability and also your grace and dignity — something so rare these
The hundreds of people who have rallied to my support from all round the country profile me as a hard-working and God-fearing man who has put his not inconsiderable skills and experience at the disposal of all the people of KwaZulu-Natal. My dual role as AG and national president-elect of the St Vincent de Paul Society keeps me in touch with people from all walks of life, from cabinet ministers and judges to grassroots people I work with at meetings and on visits to black and coloured townships.
Reporters of the Sunday Times and the Mail & Guardian describe me as an embattled AG. I am far from that. In between my normal duties I addressed law students at the University of Natal this week, and will be attending a crime prevention forum meeting on September 18 and delivering a lecture on expert evidence at a major seminar on September 21 in Bloemfontein. I was invited to address another national conference in Johannesburg on the same day, but could not do so due to the prior commitment.
The Minister of Justice is reported in the Sunday Tribune of September 3 as having said, in regard to KwaZulu-Natal, that “it is a crisis that murder and such crimes are not being prosecuted”. I have written to the minister to reassure him that murder and such crimes are indeed being prosecuted in those cases where police dockets disclose a prima facie case.
Eight supreme court judges are kept busy in KwaZulu- Natal on a daily basis dealing with such matters. Indeed, we have had some singular successes only recently with convictions and very heavy sentences being handed down in two high-profile cases, namely the hit squad case before Judge van der Reyden and the murder trial involving Mountain Rise policemen before Judge Wilson. It is business as usual in my office, with my dedicated staff and me giving our best attention to a huge through-flow of work.
The parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice has given me notice that my attendance is required to appear before it on September 27 at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The other attorneys-general have received similar notices. This process of accountability holds no fear for me. I believe it will give me a platform from which to confront and confound my critics. Meantime, my retirement date remains November 28 2003.