KwaZulu-Natal=D5s embattled attorney general has agreed to reconsider a hit=
squad prosecution to avoid a major confrontation, reports Ann Eveleth
EMBATTLED KwaZulu-Natal Attorney General Tim McNally ths week=20 stepped back from the brink of a major confrontation with the Investigation=
Task Unit (ITU) probing hit squads in the province. In a remarkable volte-face on Wednesday, McNally backed down from a=20 series of controversial moves which had raised tension between him and=20 the ITU over the past week, rescinding his two-day-old suspension of the=20 prosecutor attached to the ITU and agreeing to reconsider a hit-squad case=
investigated by the unit. This =D2amicable=D3 resolution was reached during a =D2meeting of=20 reconciliation=D3 between McNally and members of the ITU Board appointed=20 by Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi, a joint statement said. Conflict between McNally and the ITU flared publicly last weekend after=20 McNally declined to prosecute senior Inkatha Freedom Party and KwaZulu=20 Police officials allegedly linked to the attempted murder of KZP Captain=20 Alphus Masinga, saying there was =D2not even a remote chance that a=20 prosecution would succeed=D3. The ITU, which lashed out at McNally=D5s publication of details of the=20 investigation, said it was =D2satisfied there was more than sufficient evid=
upon which to launch a prosecution=D3. Tension soared further on Monday, when McNally suspended advocate=20 Carl Koenig as prosecutor hours before he was due to represent the ITU in=
court in connection with the unit=D5s first hit-squad case. McNally said he=
had suspended Koenig because =D2recent events have brought into sharper=20 focus for me the fact that (Koenig was) no longer accountable to (me)=D3.=
Raising the stakes in the case, former Witwatersrand Attorney General=20 Klaus von Lieres =D1 widely seen as having displayed =D2old guard=D3=20 sympathies during his incumbency =D1 appeared as defence advocate for=20 Inkatha Freedom Party deputy secretary general Zakhele Khumalo and four=20 KwaZulu policemen arrested in connection with the 1987 KwaMakhutha=20 massacre case. A joint press statement released after Wednesday=D5s meeting between=20 McNally and the ITU Board said Koenig=D5s suspension =D2has been lifted and=
it was agreed that his expertise will continue to be used by both McNally=
and the ITU=D3. The statement said McNally would =D2reconsider his decision in the Masinga=
case upon receipt of further representations from the board and unit=D3, as= his=20 press statement released last Friday had been intended only =D2as a working=
The statement said the meeting had also discussed =D2the perceived=20 difference in philosophy and principle=D3 between McNally and the ITU.=20 McNally had been speaking =D2off the cuff=D3 on SAfm on Tuesday when he=20 said he wanted to prosecute hit-squad =D2operatives=D3 and that he actually=
meant hit-squad leaders should be prosecuted.=20 The ITU had reacted to McNally=D5s statement, saying that =D2the gulf which=
has opened between us … is not the result of one decision in one case. It= is=20 a difference of principle and even philosophy=D3. Wednesday=D5s joint statement said a strategy had been agreed regarding the=
investigation of senior IFP politicians and others ordered by Durban=20 Supreme Court Judge Nick van der Reyden last week. Several of those=20 implicated by the accused in the hit-squad trial, which ended last week, ar=
also suspects in the Masinga case, including IFP KwaZulu-Natal social=20 welfare MEC Prince Gideon Zulu, acting KZP commissioner Brigadier=20 Petros Mzimela and former acting KZP commissioner Major-General=20 Sipho Mathe. Despite Wednesday=D5s meeting, McNally remains under pressure, with=20 Natal violence monitor Mary de Haas having challenged him this week to=20 explain what steps he has taken to address violence and abuses of the=20 criminal justice system occurring in the province. Among the complaints raised by De Haas was McNally=D5s apparent failure=20 to prosecute IFP supporter Toti Zulu for possession of a semi-automatic=20 weapon he was televised wielding on the night of IFP leader Mangosuthu=20 Buthelezi=D5s SABC fiasco. De Haas told McNally in a letter this week that she had =D2no doubt that a=
major degree of culpability for the continuation of violence rests with tho=
who have been given responsibility for ensuring perpetrators are brought to=
justice and have failed abysmally at their task=D3.