DA leader John Steenhuisen. Picture: Timothy Bernard / African News Agency (ANA)
The official opposition has once again launched an attack on President Cyril Ramaphosa and accused him of creating a special remission programme to allow for the release of former president Jacob Zuma.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said Ramaphosa had abused his powers and the law by allowing for the release of Zuma without returning to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.
He said the remission of sentence programme was used this week with Zuma in mind.
He said they had used 10 000 other low-risk offenders as cover for the release of Zuma
Steenhuisen, who was addressing the DA congress in Gauteng on Saturday, said the party would not allow for the abuse of law.
He said two DA mayors in Cape Town and Tshwane stood up for the rule of law this week while Ramaphosa was subverting.
He said even Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis had told Police Minister Bheki Cele to his face that he would not allow violence in the city.
This followed the taxi strike in Cape Town that ended on Thursday.
In Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink stood up against striking workers after firing those involved in the illegal strike, said Steenhuisen.
“While our mayors were out on the front-line defending the rule of law, our president was running away from it. In a cynical move he has abused his powers to once again put the ANC before the people of the country. But he has told us before so many times and I don’t know why it was not taken on face value when he said ‘I’d rather be a weak president than break up the ANC.’ He showed that again this week, he’d rather break the rule of law, he’d rather subvert justice to be able to defend his party than to stand up for the Constitution and the people of South Africa.
“But the worst thing is that they weasel out of their obligations in terms of the rule of law by inventing some new remission programme for which Mr J.G. Zuma was the first recipient. In order to sneak him out of jail they had to put out 10 000 other incarcerated criminals around him,” said Steenhuisen.
He said the recidivism rate is about 70%.
This meant that thousands of those to be released were likely to commit crime again.
Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola said they have been working on the remission of sentence programme from April.
This dealt with low-risk offenders across the country.
He denied that this programme was designed with Zuma in mind as the initiative began months ago.
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