MEDIA STATEMENT
BY THE
INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
|
MEDIA
STATEMENT BY: 30 January 2008 The High Court case by the 384 Inkatha Freedom Party prisoners against President Mbeki and the Minister of Justice served before the High Court in Pretoria today. Both sides addressed the court and Judge Seriti reserved judgement. Mr Koos van der Merwe MP, IFP Chief Whip, reacted as follows: "I am glad that we have reached this stage where we will now hopefully have judgement shortly, and we are optimistic about the outcome. However, I am shocked by the fact that the Minister of Justice sent an advocate to court to plead her case solely on technical points. The Minister's advocate didn't address the merits of the matter at all, but only resorted to technical points. We had hoped that at last, the Minister would show some compassion for these unfortunate people who have been languishing in prison for the past four and a half years, but she didn't bother at all to make any proposals for a settlement. "This Minister has already been found guilty by the Human Rights Commission for the violation of human rights of the most defenceless people in society - prisoners. Over a period of four years she has been consistently criticised for not doing her work; that she violated human rights of prisoners and on numerous occasions calls went out for her dismissal from Cabinet. "President
Mbeki now sits with egg on his face because of these violations
and the obvious thing for the President to do, to safe face,
would be to dismiss this Minister forthwith." FOR FURTHER
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