Mr Speaker, I have not debated with the hon Collins since we negotiated the Bill of Rights, but I am not going to respond to him as my preceding speaker. I am going to talk about something closer to our old portfolio than his new one, and I wish to address my hon President.
Sir, I said in the state of the nation address last June that the hon President's choice of a Chief Justice would be the single most important act of his Presidency. I also suggested that there was a natural successor. He assured me most courteously in reply that he would make a good choice, and I think that it is only right that I should acknowledge that he has, indeed, made not only a good, but a great choice. We look forward to the modernisation of an administratively independent judicial branch under the leadership of the Chief Justice, and also to the modernisation of our civil justice system.
However, sir, the exact opposite has occurred at the prosecuting authority. There, the hon President's startling choice for National Director of Public Prosecutions, the NDPP, has, within months, caused a crisis at that institution, and it is obvious, but perhaps it needs saying, that the independent courts cannot play their part in dispensing, specifically, criminal justice if criminal prosecution is compromised.
Meneer, die fragmentering en die gevolglike neutralisering van die Vervolgingsgesag lyk na 'n kru quid pro quo vir die vestiging van institusioneel onafhanklike howe. En die agb President het hier 'n direkte verantwoordelikheid. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Sir, the fragmentation and subsequent neutralisation of the Prosecuting Authority appears to be a crude quid pro quo for the establishment of institutionally independent courts. And the hon President has a direct responsibility in this regard.]
It was only last Wednesday that the hon Justice Minister said in his budget speech that the key pillars in the fight against crime and corruption remain the specialised units - plural - that fall under the National Prosecuting Authority, the NPA. He was formally reporting back to us after we had revealed the Simelane plan to him a week earlier, to his visible surprise in the committee. The hon Minister then rode off and rescued the Asset Forfeiture Unit, AFU, perhaps placating the public via the media where the AFU has built up a profile for itself.
Maar ons oud-kollega mnr Willie Hofmeyr is maar die kleinboetie van adv Chris Jordaan, u weet. Dit is adv Jordaan wat die kommersile skurke vastrek en laat sit, met 3 000 sake per jaar teenoor Willie se 300 per jaar, R112 miljoen aan uitbetalings aan slagoffers teenoor Willie se R29 miljoen, en 'n syfer van 94% skuldigbevindings teenoor 63%. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[But our former colleague Mr Willie Hofmeyr is but a smaller-scale version of adv Chris Jordaan, you know. It is adv Jordaan who tracks down criminals and throws them into jail, with his 3 000 cases per year against Willie's 300, his R112 million pay-outs to victims compared to Willie's R29 million, and a conviction rate of 94% as opposed to 63%.]
Why was no one told, hon President, that while the hon Minister was meeting Adv Simelane the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit, the SCCU, had already been disbanded? That is, despite a spectacular success rate in the notoriously difficult business of securing convictions for commercial crime. A figure of 94% is nothing unusual for that unit.
On the day before the ministerial meeting, the Public Servants Association, the PSA, reported that the NPA had told it that the SCCU was being restructured because its head was retiring. Adv Jordaan is not retiring. And to the hon Minister who is now not with us at the moment, I must say that the executive "final responsibility" demonstrably does not work, contrary to what he somewhat smugly asserted in a debate last Wednesday.
But it is you, sir the hon President, that I am addressing, because the special directorates, Sir, are your responsibility. The buck stops literally with you. The special directorates are created by presidential proclamation. The relevant sections of the National Prosecuting Authority Act are 13, 14 and 24(3). The SCCU's head and its 200 staff members were recruited and appointed to specific positions in that directorate because of their skills. Sir, you would have to revoke the presidential proclamation before they can be demoted or redeployed.
Now, did you know, or agree to this? And we would like an answer; the question is not rhetorical. If you did not, then Adv Simelane is in defiance of presidential orders. That is bad. Sir, if you did know, that is worse! And here is why: Equality before the law will be a dead letter if you allow the NDPP to close down our best corruption busters. Mr President, it is an act so irrational that we have to ask if the SCCU is just too good for the ANC and its cronies' comfort!
Dit lyk vir ons na 'n vorm van vrywaring van vervolging van vriende. [To us it looks like a form of indemnity from prosecution for friends.]
And selective justice, sir, is no justice at all. [Applause.]