Willie Hofmeyr, African National Congress MP, responds on this page to our January 15 to 21 editorial concerning the country’s lamentable record on crime. His point is that the government is committed to deterring and imprisoning criminals – an assurance he and many of his colleagues no doubt believe has been borne out by the arrest on Tuesday night of alleged heist mastermind Collin Chauke.
While welcoming Hofmeyr’s sentiments that keeping criminals in jail is seen as part of the plan, we believe that the proof of successful policy is in its implementation.
Two recent examples show why the public’s faith is so diminished: our report this week about Samuel Sidymo, the alleged Pretoria serial killer who is accused of murdering six people while out on parole (see PAGE6); and the story in last week’s edition of an accused child molester in Soweto who was back on the streets within months of being charged with sexually molesting a four-year-old girl.
And, while sharing in the spirit of celebration over Chauke, it needs to be remembered that the whole saga is an indictment of the criminal justice system’s failure to keep criminals behind bars.
Before anyone pops the champagne corks – or holds a braai, as was suggested by Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi this week – we would like to know the answers to the following questions:
l How did Chauke escape?
l Who were his friends in the police and prison service who facilitated his sensational escape, the day after he was visited by Mufamadi?
l Why did it take so long to catch Chauke, considering that he has not only been sighted several times, but has also, quite clearly, been spending quality time with his girlfriend?
l What are his links to high-ranking politicians such as the deputy minister whose birthday party Chauke reportedly attended shortly after his escape?
For it is only with friends and associates in the police and in influential circles that Chauke could not only have escaped but also managed to remain a free man for more than a year without leaving his old haunts.
All that being said, the police deserve congratulation if only because their performance where Chauke is concerned has improved since his last escape from prison in 1994. While he was still a fugitive, Chauke, in an extraordinary display of chutzpah, stood for public office and became an ANC councillor for two years, after which he resigned “to pursue personal interests”.
Now that he has been captured he needs not only to be kept inside but kept alive – and not allowed to fall victim to an unfortunate “accident” such as that which befell Josiah “Fingers” Rabotapi, who was killed by police after his capture last August. This is not only because Chauke deserves a fair trial, but because we believe he has some interesting answers to the above questions.
Generalissimo Bob
Zimbabwe’s slide towards dictatorship has been inexorable, providing what is almost a classic case of the corrupting effects of power.
It was power seized by a largely tribal majority, which quickly turned it against the largest minority with the awful massacres in Matabeleland. It then entrenched itself by forcing one- party rule on the country, tolerating little in the way of opposition.
The country’s leader, isolated by his own hubris from the population he was meant to govern, became increasingly eccentric in his assumption of infallibility. Gradually his pretensions of democratic rule are abandoned as realisation begins to dawn that he is the main enemy of the state he is sworn to protect. The trend is seemingly inexorable and all that is left to discover is whether popular anger or old age get him first. It is a depressing morality tale, particularly when played out against the backdrop of Africa.
But there is another side to the tale of post-independence Zimbabwe which offers some hope to the continent and needs to be recognised as such – the spirit of defiance which burns ever more brightly in that small country. It is evident in trade union demonstrations, the courage shown by the independent press, the ultimate refusal of the courts to be cowed and even the spirit shown by the local stock exchange, in shutting itself down last week rather than coughing up a transactions levy unilaterally imposed by the government.
Robert Mugabe is teetering on a point of no return where the last pretences to democratic rule are concerned. Two journalists, including an editor, were released on Thursday after being severely tortured by the army – and only after the court issued four orders for the government to produce them.
The reluctance to obey the judiciary can only mean that the rule of law is being abandoned in favour of martial diktat and a full-blown Mugabe dictatorship is on the way. If this is the case, we would urge South Africans to do all they can to support the dissidents who are already so deserving of our admiration.