Quote of the week
[T]he moral point of the matter is never reached by calling what happened by the name of ‘genocide’ or by counting the many millions of victims: extermination of whole peoples had happened before in antiquity, as well as in modern colonization. It is reached only when we realize this happened within the frame of a legal order and that the cornerstone of this ‘new law’ consisted of the command ‘Thou shall kill,’ not thy enemy but innocent people who were not even potentially dangerous, and not for any reason of necessity but, on the contrary, even against all military and other utilitarian calculations. … And these deeds were not committed by outlaws, monsters, or raving sadists, but by the most respected members of respectable society.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil
Thabo Mbeki responds to allegations by Willem heath
Statement from the office of former president Thabo Mbeki regarding the City Press interview with Advocate Willem Heath
The office of former president Thabo Mbeki has noted Advocate Willem Heath’s interview in the City Press newspaper’s edition of December 4, 2011 in which he makes defamatory and malicious allegations against the former President.
Among others, Advocate Heath alleges that “during his tenure …as President of the Republic”, the former president “abused his position to compromise the criminal justice system by blocking some investigations into corrupt practices and ‘initiated’ the corruption and rape charges preferred against President Jacob Zuma by the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions”.
Former president Mbeki categorically rejects all the allegations Advocate Heath has made. They are devoid of all truth.
The allegations made by Advocate Heath are very grave, more so because they are made by the Head of the Special Investigation Unit, a critical organ of our criminal justice system and suggest illegal conduct on the part of a former head of state and government.
Although Advocate Heath, a former judge, does not seem to have much regard for the decisions of the courts (including the Constitutional Court) except those with which he agrees, it is worth emphasising that the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) found no basis in the allegation of political interference on the part of former president Mbeki and the then Cabinet in the corruption case of President Zuma.
Among other things, the SCA said that “the allegations (of political interference) were … irrelevant … gratuitous and based on suspicion and not on fact”.
The legal representative of the Thabo Mbeki Foundation has today formally approached government to provide evidence of all the allegations made by Advocate Heath.
The office of former president Thabo Mbeki also notes comments attributed to President Zuma about Advocate Heath insofar as they may relate to the latter’s comments on the former president.
In the past, former president Mbeki has drawn attention to the use of fabrications to advance particular political agendas and to divert attention from the pressing challenges of the day.
If our broad leadership at all levels of society do not address this tendency, it may become an indelible part of our political culture and make it impossible for our country to address the real challenges we face.
Since his retirement, former president Mbeki has avoided commenting on domestic politics. It is with great reluctance that he is now being forced to comment on Adv. Heath’s allegations.
» Issued by the office of former president Thabo Mbeki, Johannesburg, December 8 2011
