'Nqakula like Jimmy Kruger'

2006-06-03 13:06

Cape Town - Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon said on Saturday that Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula was like a latter-day Jimmy Kruger.

He was speaking at Tafelsig in the run-up to a crucial by-election for Cape Town's multi-party government.

If the DA wins the Tafelsig seat on Wednesday, it will give the multi-party government a majority of three seats in the 210-seat council.

Referring to Nqakula saying in Parliament this week that people complaining about crime had the option of leaving the country, Leon likened his comments to those of apartheid Police Minister Kruger once saying: "Biko's death leaves me cold."

Steve Biko, a black consciousness leader, died in detention while Kruger was in office.

The DA leader went on to say that in the same vein, Nqakula had added insult to injury for victims of crime and their families when he said: "They can continue to whinge until they're blue in the face... be as negative as they want to, or they can simply leave this country so that all of the peace-loving South Africans, good South

African people who want to make this a successful country, can continue with their work."

Leon said no one with the courage and dignity could ever go out in the streets of South Africa and live among the people and say what Nqakula had said in Parliament.

"It is the equivalent of Jacob Zuma's solution for HIV: "a shower a day keeps Aids away".

"What the African National Congress says is: If you have a problem with the government's "see nothing, say nothing, do nothing" approach to crime, then leave South Africa or suffer in silence."

Leon said that Cape Town, in its new multi-party government under DA mayor Helen Zille, was already taking strong steps to fight crime.

"This past week, the council increased the capital expenditure on the City Police by R9.5m, and has added an extra R36.5m to emergency services this year."

- SAPA