In 1963, the apartheid Parliament rushed through the General Laws Amendment Act, Number 37 of 1963. The Act applied retroactively to June 27th 1962 and was mainly aimed at ensuring that the ANC leaders arrested at Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia could be held in detention indefinitely or until they could be charged.
Under this General Law [...]
Posts under ‘NPA’
Somewhere in the wild, wild, East
More questions for Mbeki on Selebi
When former US President Bill Clinton was confronted with allegations that he had sex in the Oval Office with the White House intern, Monica Lewinski, he went on national television and with his lower lip quivering (he can do that quivering-with-indignation-and-selfrighteousness look better than most politicians), he declared: “I did not have sexual relations with [...]
Who could have made up this stuff?
What on earth is going on at the Brett Kebble murder trial? So far two state witnesses have testified that they were involved in the killing of former mining magnate and ANC Youth League benefactor, Brett Kebble. They claim it was an “assisted suicide” and that they were so bad at the job that they [...]
What now for Menzi Simelane?
What should one make of the report in todays Mail & Guardian that a subcommittee of the Johannesburg Bar has found there was merit in the complaint lodged against National Director of Public Prosecution (NDPP), Menzi Simelane, which alleged that he was not a fit and proper person? Simelane has now been afforded an opportunity [...]
On World Cup Courts and the prosecution of “criminals”
While watching the Black Stars of Ghana being “cheated” out of a semi-final place at the Fifa World Cup by the very human hands of Luiz Suarez of Uruguay, one of my friends told us that he had just received an sms about the arrest of Paris Hilton for the possession of dagga at a [...]
Selebi conviction leaves many questions unanswered
The conviction this morning of former Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi, on charges of corruption leaves many questions unanswered. Judge Meyer Joffe found that Selebi had received substantial amounts of money from gangster Glen Agliotti and then did favors for Agliotti, including showing him a top secret document which contained substantial sections of the the national [...]
Another twist in Zuma corruption case?
Lawyers for President Jacob Zuma and the NPA are deploying all the technical legal arguments at their disposal to try and prevent the DA from obtaining all the documents on which the Acting Natonal Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Mokothedi Mpshe, relied when he made the decision to drop all charges against President Jacob Zuma. [...]
Zuma: He is fit and proper because I say so – now shut up
When is a lawyer not a “fit and proper” person and when does a lawyer not have “integrity”? If, say, a lawyer had deliberately misled an Inquiry set up by a previous President in terms of legislation, if that lawyer had drafted a letter that contained an unlawful instruction to the head of an independent body [...]
Radebe cannot tell Simelane what to do
What can be done about Menzi Simelane, the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) who seems to be ”restructuring” the NPA into a big mess? Mr Simelane seems to have a rather unique management style: he seems to have a sharp eye for identifying all the individuals and units doing their jobs properly, then he removes them from [...]
A secret trial for Terreblanche accused?
I must confess that I am dreading the weeks and months ahead as the trial of the alleged killers of Eugene Terreblanche gets under way. The past few days have shown that the killing of Terreblanche has become something of a Rorschach test for South Africans. Many of us seem to have interpreted the killing [...]
