Hon Speaker, no, there was no undermining of the court decisions. As I said earlier, this is the system that is practised universally, and none of those who are empowered by a constitution to do so when they do that is undermining the decisions of the courts.
What happens is that once you say that there is a remission to be given to so many, you actually don't go as the President and point to this or that prisoner to go out. It is the system that screens and therefore looks at who must benefit. It is the system that looks at, among other things, the behaviour of those who have been in prison. As they have been recording the behaviour, they are able to identify, after screening, the ones who could go out.
I don't think that you could expect the President to know how each and every prisoner behaves in prison. That is impossible. All you do is that you use the authority that you have to take a decision which is then taken down through the Minister, the officials and the people in prison, who then screen the people and later tell you the number of those who could benefit. That is how it is. It has nothing to do with the undermining of the courts. Thank you, hon Speaker.
Position regarding status of SA Police Service as a force or a service
18. Mr M G P Lekota (Cope) asked the President of the Republic:
(1) Whether the reference of his Minister of Police to the SA Police Service as a force represents a departure of the police from being a service to now being a paramilitary force with military designations and rank; if not, what is the position in this regard, if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) whether he intends instituting an investigation into the utilisation of the force deployed by the Technical Reaction Team in enforcing the law; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details? NO2968E