“Independent” institutions aren’t
E-News aired a report last night about the death in police custody of a 69-year-old Alzheimer’s sufferer. He was arrested for not paying for an R8 ($1) bar of chocolate. CCTV footage of the incident shows a policeman pepper-gassing the elderly Mr Brown in what appears to be a premeditated attack. Not shown was how he received a gaping wound. Rather than being taken to a doctor, he was locked up in an unfurnished, dark police holding cell. The police refused to let Brown’s family see him and did not call a doctor, although they were aware of his mental condition.
So you would expect something to be done about this travesty of justice, would you? Someone like the Independent Complaints Commission which is specifically tasked to investigate this type (Class I) complaint. Well they didn’t see anything untoward about burly policeman assaulting and locking up an elderly Alzheimer’s patient without access to his family or medical care. They thought there was nothing untoward about policemen changing their statement in an apparent attempt to cover up the incident. Clearly they see nothing wrong in a confused old man – who probably didn’t even realise he had picked up a chocolate – dying at the hands of callous policemen who broke every rule and regulation in the process.
Independent? Yeah, right.
So-called independent organs of State are rapidly becoming lap-dogs of the ruling Party and the potentates within it. When an”independent” organisation is seen to act independently – particularly against a politician – it is soon cowed or simply shut down, like the Scorpions.
The South African Constitution admirably defines a number of checks and balances on the organs of state. But over the last year or two we’ve seen this independence slowly evaporate as the institutions come under severe pressure from a rampantly centralist ANC-led government. A few examples:
- The constitutionally-guaranteed independent National Prosecuting Authority was brow-beaten by Jacob Zuma and his supporters to drop the numerous serious charges of corruption against him. It used the gossamer-flimsy pretext of the potential malefides of an operative based on illegally obtained and untested “evidence”.
- Icasa, the ICT regulator caved in to pressure from ANC ally Cosatu and reversed its own decision putting the South African economy under threat.
- The Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana conveniently decided that following a trail of evidence was not required in investigating the broad front of complaints of government/ANC corruption in the arms deal.
- The Gender Commission, which has remained largely silent on gender issues, rose in outrage at Helen Zille appointing an all-male cabinet yet didn’t utter a word about the deeply misogynistic bile spewed out by the ANC-allied organisations.
Oh – and there are many, many more examples.
Independence is anathema to the ANC. The centralisation of power has been an overt strategy for over 10 years now – and it is picking up steam. The last of the independent institutions, the judiciary is now in the ruling party’s sights.
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