Zuma: I did not!

2003-06-04 17:17

Cape Town - Deputy President Jacob Zuma denied on Wednesday suggestions that he had criticised South Africa's Constitution for protecting criminals.

"The headlines were not saying what the deputy president said," he said in the National Assembly, referring to media reports stating that he had hit out at aspects of the Constitution.

Zuma told MPs he had not criticised the document, but rather the criminals who ignored it and then used to benefit themselves.

"The deputy president talked about the criminals that do not respect the Constitution of this country, when they commit crimes against citizens of this country, when they kill them, when they do all sorts of things.

"But, as soon as they are arrested as criminals, they then remember the Constitution, and they say the Constitution must protect their rights, when they don't respect the rights of the people," he said.

Zuma was responding in the House to comments from Democratic Alliance constitutional development spokesperson Tertius Delport.

Delport said the deputy president's reported statement had shown a lack of respect for the Constitution and a lack of understanding on how to fight crime.

"It is not the law which is failing the public, it is the government. You cannot fight crime by undermining the basic rights enshrined in the Constitution," he said.

Addressing an anti-crime meeting at Bonteheuwel on the gang-ridden Cape Flats on Tuesday, Zuma said it was contradictory that criminals could call on the protection of the Constitution after violating the rights of others.

He also said the law should be interpreted "in a particular way" to deal with crime.

- SAPA