Amnesty for Zuma?
I would like to propose that a resolution be put forward in Parliament, when it assembles again, to allow ANC president Jacob Zuma to apply for legal amnesty in respect of the charges that he faces.
Zuma’s legal challenge pales into insignificance when compared with the daunting task he has as ANC leader. He needs to be unburdened quickly so that he can apply his mind and energy to South Africa’s biggest priorities: combating poverty and crime.
In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare has Lepidus utter the words: ”But small to greater matters must give way.”
Parliament can resolve to create an ad hoc committee that could hold public hearings to ascertain the mood of the nation on the question of offering legal amnesty to Zuma on terms and conditions to be determined.
If the majority of people wish to give him a clean slate, they’re entitled to, because the people are sovereign. No one can gainsay what the people freely determine.
As for the corruption in the arms procurement, it would be better to deal with it by setting up a judicial commission of inquiry. — MF Cassim (former MP), Cape Town
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ANC members must uphold certain principles even under difficult conditions — including the principle that nobody, irrespective of social status, is above the law. Even Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Judge Pius Langa are not above the law.
The second principle is that a person is innocent until proved guilty. In a constitutional state such as ours, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) must prove that Zuma is guilty of an offence.
A court hearing would give him the opportunity to explain in detail his relationship with Schabir Shaik and Thint.
The NPA is under no obligation to first test public opinion on when to indict someone, even the ANC president. ANC deputy president Kgalema Montlanthe has said he wishes the matter could be finalised. The NPA has responded to his wish.
As democrats, we must wait for the court to pronounce itself. In September 2005, Zuma and Thabo Mbeki told the NEC that it is important not to undermine law enforcement agencies. Singing derogatory songs about advocate Mpshe, as we did about Bulelani Ngcuka and Vusi Pikoli, will go against what Mbeki and Zuma stand for.
We hope ANC Youth League leader Fikile Mbalula will contain himself and help all of us to remain calm and allow the law to take its own course.
We must also advise Cosatu’s leaders to ensure that ”there is no blood on the courtroom floor”. We should guard against setting the precedent that if an ANC member is charged, we must start toyi-toying. We must reject reckless statements by ANC KwaZulu-Natal leader Zeth Luzipho.
Our president must, on his own, convince the judges that his relationship with Schabir Shaik and Thint was not corrupt.
Having won all its appeals, it is the NPA, not Mbeki, which is charging Zuma. — Siyanda Mhlongo
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The manner in which the NPA is conducting itself is a disgrace.
I believe the president instructed it to recharge Zuma. We never thought it would allow itself to be used for factional political battles within the ANC.
Mbeki and those around him are hell-bent on destroying the democratic gains we have won since 1994.
At present, there is a war in Kenya on the basis of differences around the leadership of that country. Should our people be sacrificed on the altar of greed, opportunism and careerism?
History will never forgive us if we fail to ensure that the incoming NEC takes decisions that will save our country from the uncertainty created by some individuals who want to control power at our expense.
How can we build unity when the president of our movement is being politically persecuted, and his leadership and person are being vilified through the media and in other ways? — Kaizer Mohau
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The NPA is starting to send shivers down our spines by how gullible it is, and how easily it is manipulated to fight political battles.
Please disband the Scorpions before they cost us the best leader South Africa has. — Patrick Rampai, Johannesburg
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Of course the public thinks the NPA’s priorities are set by Mbeki — after all, it was he who suspended NPA boss Pikoli when the latter wanted to arrest national police commissioner Jackie Selebi.
The German publication Der Spiegel has reported suspicions that Chippie Shaik (who soon after left South Africa) and Mbeki are implicated in the $3-million bribe by the German supplier of destroyers to South Africa. The NPA has not indicated that it is following this up; Zuma, on the other hand, is being charged.
Politicians should not be surprised if the public thinks many of them are corrupt. Their behaviour — for example, limiting Scopa when it tried to investigate the arms deal — gives us reason to believe that where there’s smoke there’s fire. — Dave Raulstone
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The run-up to the Polokwane conference witnessed an extremely divisive campaign, with the Zuma camp employing tactics never seen before in the history of the ANC.
Zuma never reprimanded his supporters; only when he was elected did he pay lip service to unity and discipline in the organisation.
At his victory party he said were people who had not accepted him as president. He was clearly instructing his henchmen to deal with dissenters, as Mbalula had earlier referred to people with differing views as ”mutineers” who should be ”dealt with”.
The Scorpions have now brought new charges against Zuma and already Cosatu — Zuma’s PR agency — has warned of bloodshed. All these statements are worrying to democrats.
If Zuma is really concerned about unity and stability in the country, he should speak out against such behaviour by his supporters. — Nhlanhla Ndwandwe, Richards Bay
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Why should Zuma go to court when his defence has already been stolen and studied by the prosecution in illegal raids? — Mshengu Tshabalala, Alan Manor
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The NPA is not having a second bite at Zuma. It is conducting an ongoing investigation, which is in any event being dragged out by Zuma himself, who is doing his utmost to avoid his day in court.
Also, he missed his day in court when he refused to testify, as a defence witness, in the Shaik trial.– Clive Pienaar
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Kenya reaps the whirlwind
Kenya has a long history of internecine violence choreographed by ruling regimes trying to protect their ill-gotten wealth by using ”tribe” and ”race”.
After a corruption binge and having unleashed murder on an unprecedented scale, they now parade as our protectors.
Many in President Mwai Kibaki’s Cabinet and opposition party members have uttered what, under the South African Constitution, would be hate speech.
Many worked for the state when major public figures such as Robert Ouko, Bishop Alexander Kipsang Muge, Pio Gama Pinto, JM Kariuki and Tom Mboya were killed because of their political beliefs or ethnic roots.
Others kept quiet when state-sponsored militia spread mayhem in western Kenya in the early 1990s to stop multipartyism.
A number of public figures in the current mess violently speared effigies of Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o in the late 1980s. Others laughed or kept quiet when thugs were unleashed on Nobel Peace Prize-winner Richard Leakey, Reverend Timothy Njoya, university students and Wangari Maathai in the 1990s.
Others took oaths of ethnic-elite solidarity, sold to the public as a defence of ethnic rights, during massacres and inter-party repression in the late 1960s.
It would be naive to think they have suddenly developed a conscience. Beware of the Kenyan politicians in the coming days who make a show of appealing to liberty and human rights when they have been consistently illiberal and complicit in crimes against humanity.
The media must investigate. Let the world know that members of almost all Kenyan ethnic groups are being killed, not just Kikuyu supporters of Kibaki’s illegitimate government.
All major urban areas and rural settlements are under severe threat, thanks to the purveyors of spreadsheet democracy and IT-enabled cooking of votes.
Kenyans must admit that our collective silence in the face of extreme repression at key moments in our history has led to this crisis.
Only a truth and reconciliation commission and clear rules for power sharing will help us in the long run. Do not fail east Africa, for the region could implode! — Dr Dan Ojwang, head of African literature, Wits University
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Where has death penalty worked?
In response to Primarashni Gower’s emotive Christmas edition call for the resumption of the death penalty, I would ask her to provide one example of where this policy has led to a decline in serious crime.
Is the murder rate lower in the mighty United States, which executes, or in Canada, which does not?
Was our country a safer place under the apartheid regime, which executed? Should we revert to the execution of those guilty of treason? Is Nigeria a better place without Ken Saro Wiwa?
Two wrongful convictions received widespread coverage in the restricted Chinese media last year. A butcher executed for murder in 1989 was proved innocent when his ”victim” was found alive, while a man was freed after 11 years in jail when his wife, whom he was accused of killing, was also found alive.
Which sentence would you choose if you were falsely accused? — Kevin A Eve, Fish Hoek
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In reply to Paula Leyden (Letters, January 4), whether the death penalty is a solution to violent crime is hardly the point. We do not wish to share oxygen with these bastards — it’s as simple as that.
To house them in jails with three meals a day for the rest of their lives could be seen as a malignant perversion. — Miles Mickleburgh, Mbabane, Swaziland
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Ignorant
In the M&G‘s end-of-year edition, Mark Gevisser claims Van Zyl Slabbert responded to (then deputy president) Thabo Mbeki’s question: ”If you were in my position what would you do?” with ”Thabo, I would appoint five or six expert committees in key areas to tell me every day how stupid I am.”
Where could Gevisser have got this from?
The version in Slabbert’s book, The Other Side of History, appears far more in character: ”I would appoint a number of committees of experts in key areas to constantly remind me how much I have to learn and how ignorant I am.” — Chris Gilfillan, Pretoria
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In brief
Thomas Paine said: ”It is the duty of a patriot to protect his country from his government.” That is what the M&G does. In the past year you have been the modern patriot that will help redirect South Africa to political and economic responsibility and freedom. I wish you a wonderful journalistic 2008. — Pierre van Niekerk
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I am a keen reader of the M&G, but was horrified to have a ”Pink Map” included in my last edition. I refuse to support any paper which promotes something I feel so strongly about — gays! — Disappointed, Cape Town
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Young South African women might have thought that times were changing for them, that equality with men, equal opportunities and the advantages of modern education — including prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and Aids by abstention or monogamy — were their due. But if the polygamous Jacob Zuma is held up as an example, they are being forced firmly behind men into the ”traditional” roles of the past. — Ingela Richardson, Gonubie
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On your letters pages of December 14 last year, a Dr Oehley of New Zealand wrote that if Zuma is elected president, it will be disastrous for Africa and South Africa’s future. Lazarus Yotamu from Canada also questioned the leadership elected by the ANC. Why do foreigners continue to dictate to Africa? In Patrice Lumumba’s words, Africa will only be free when it writes its own history. — Anele Hokwana, Bloemfontein