'Zuma must be equal before law'
2008-08-02 22:30
Johannesburg - Every person, including Jacob Zuma, must be equal before the law and every person must have the right to a fair trial, opposition leader Helen Zille said on Saturday at a crime imbizo in Durban.
"ANC leaders have now vowed that Zuma will walk free, no matter what evidence there is against him," the Democratic Alliance head said in remarks prepared for delivery.
"They are effectively saying that if you are powerful enough you are above the law."
Zille said over the past 14 years more than 10 million violent crimes, ranging from murder to rape to armed robbery, had been reported to the police.
"More people have been killed in SA in the last five years than in the war in Iraq."
"The statistics no longer mean much. They cannot express the pain that is felt by every South African who has lost a loved one to violent crime," she said.
Inertia and denial
Zille said government was not doing enough to help combat the crime situation in the country, adding the criminal justice system was soft on crime and tough on the victims of crime.
"Behind every statistic are human beings whose lives have been taken away or have been irredeemably changed forever."
"This is what our government either does not understand or does not want to talk about."
She said instead of action and compassion, it prefers inertia and denial.
While the rights of criminals were entrenched, there was nothing in law protecting the rights of the victims, she said.
- SAPA