Zuma endorsement of Shabangu in stark contrast to ANC policy on death penalty

You have to admit that Msholozi and Deputy Safety and Security Minister Susan Shabangu’s calls to shoot the criminals and kill the bastards make you feel kinda warm all over. Let’s face it, South Africans are sick and tired of criminals and the sooner this blight on our country is brought under control, the better.

This does not detract, however, from the fact that culling the criminal herd, in the manner suggested, is illegal. It crosses too many laws and boundaries to cover here, save to iterate that the deputy minister, particularly one whose portfolio is safety and security, cannot be seen to be telling the police to break the law.

Don’t confuse this with the rights which the police and other parties have, in terms of the law, to defend themselves when they are under attack. The law already provides for deadly force in certain defined circumstances. If you shoot at the police or pull a gun on them, they will take you out of the game and with justification.

This call by the minister, which is receiving enormous support, I have to concede, goes way beyond that.

A point of interest: if the ANC is adamant that the death penalty remains off the statute books, how can it condone a “death penalty” that is inflicted without any due process of law?

In the ordinary course a criminal is convicted, appeals — perhaps several times — and then, having exhausted all avenues left open to him or her, is executed in countries where capital punishment is an acceptable penalty. This is considered wholly unacceptable to the ANC and, if officials are to be believed, not even up for debate.

Yet here we have an instruction to ignore all that — don’t pass go, don’t collect $200, move directly to the death penalty before the suspect, which is all that he or she is at the time in question, is even arrested and charged.

A death penalty for suspects while convicted murderers are safely tucked up in their prison cells?

Incredibly you come across people who are adamant that the death penalty is an archaic, barbaric act carried on by people with a Nazi-like mentality, yet, I shit you not, confirm that they are happy to see the minister finally having a full go at criminals. I assume, therefore, by archaic and barbaric they refer to the trial and appeals, because it seems as if they have no problems shooting the “bastards” before they’re even convicted as criminals!

Reminds me of that skit they did in Not the 9 O’clock News, a British comedy that poked fun at everything and everyone. In one scene they have an “esteemed” panel discussing what to do with English football hooligans. One expert, regardless of the scenario put to her, had only one solution: “Cut off their goolies!” Maybe she died and was reincarnated as a deputy minister for sa … but I digress.

Of course what many forget is that statute and the common law as underpinned by precedent set out an awful lot of crimes. Which ones are worthy of the pre-arrest death penalty would be anyone’s guess. You might hate robbers while your neighbour is adamant that the abalone stocks need guarding. Some might like the idea of a blanket culling of all undesirables.

While I reject the idea with the contempt that it deserves, if people feel that it must progress, might I just mention my bank manager in passing? I know that he hasn’t paid his TV licence and while I’d hate to be the whistleblower …

Perhaps a list that President Mbeki’s finest can carry in their pockets of “shoot the bastards” versus “worthy of arresting”.

I would love to be at the scene of a crime in progress when our boys in blue arrive:

“Wie het die misdaad-skietlys?”

“Eish, Inspector, I left it at the station!”

“Reg manne, luister nou mooi — skiet almal!”

South Africans, you are the greatest guys and gals on the planet — your passion and zeal in dealing with issues is why I could never leave this country.

Sod the pompous and the know-alls, we are heart-on-your-sleeve reactionaries and somehow we’re going to emerge as the rainbow nation Madiba envisaged.

Or die trying …