In the Mail and Guardian I read that the Gauteng High Court has ruled that South Africa must prosecute Zimbabweans, accused of torture, if they ever appear in South Africa. This according to their obligations under the Rome Statute, which they signed (and which led to the founding of the International Criminal Court).

On the same page, Minister Chinamasa made some very strong comments. It is a “sad moment”, an “Ex-Rhodie plot”, and the South African justice system was now “in disrepute”. And he explains how it will happen, the steps that must be taken, to get a Zimbabwean criminal to South Africa.

However, he never says once that no crime was committed. That no torture was conducted. That the people here are innocent. So it would seem, by neglecting to bring up this first most obvious point, (their innocence), that he is admitting to the fact that torture took place in Zimbabwe in 2007 when the Harare headquarters of the MDC were raided by Zimbabwe authorities.

This entry was posted on May 21st, 2012 at 8:50 am by Michael Laban and is filed under Media, Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.