President Thabo Mbeki has taken opposition leader Helen Zille into his confidence on the case of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi and on other contentious issues, she said on Monday.
She met Mbeki at the Union Buildings in Pretoria for talks that lasted for longer than two hours on topics ranging from the electricity crisis to the possible disbanding of the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions).
”It was a very frank, in-depth meeting on all the issues of concerns to South Africans at the moment,” she said following the meeting.
In contrast to the two’s first meeting at Tuynhuys in October last year, there were no friendly poses for the media, and afterward Mbeki spokesperson Mukhoni Ratshitanga did not have any comment.
Speaking to reporters in the street in front of the Union Buildings, Zille said one of the issues that came up was the prosecution of Selebi.
”He has discussed it with me in-depth. I’m not going to discuss the details because the details will emerge,” she said.
She told Mbeki that South Africans did not want to see the Scorpions disbanded.
”There is a lot of scepticism around the decision as to why the Scorpions are going to be disbanded. Many South Africans believe the purpose is to protect high-ranking members of the ANC, and this is of great concern, that in fact it’s political interference in the criminal justice system,” she said.
Zille handed Mbeki a copy of her party’s plan to solve the electricity crisis.
”We discussed different elements of our respective plans, we discussed the causes of the crisis, we discussed short-, medium- and long-term solutions, and [discussed] having called for people to be held to account,” she said.
Zille, who flew from Cape Town for the meeting, would also hold talks with Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin and Minerals and Energy Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica on the electricity crisis.
‘Moral crisis’
Earlier this month, Zille requested an urgent meeting with Mbeki to discuss what she calls ”the growing perception of a constitutional and moral crisis” in South Africa.
”The indictment of [African National Congress president] Jacob Zuma and the pending corruption charges against Jackie Selebi have given rise to a widespread sense that South Africa is facing its gravest moral and constitutional crisis since the founding of our democracy,” she said at the time.
”The implication of the police national commissioner and the ruling party’s presidential candidate in massive corruption cases is but one reason for this perception.
”It is fuelled further by mounting evidence that state institutions such as the South African Police Service, the Scorpions and the National Prosecuting Authority are being interfered with by powerful political and non-political interests,” Zille said.
The situation had to be confronted and resolved without delay.
”With this meeting, I hope to set in motion a process that re-establishes public confidence that the rule of law will apply to all South Africans, whatever their positions, without fear or favour,” she said — Sapa