ON THE WATER: Walking out of the swamp of graft into morass of racism
Neels Blom argues for the privatisation of prosecution in an era of state capture, but Gerrie Nel at race-based lobby group Afriforum will not serve
Private prosecution is an excellent idea anywhere, but especially in SA, where the inadequacies of the state’s prosecuting agency go at least three presidents deep, counting caretaker Kgalema Motlanthe. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has been a threat to justice in the country for several years. If ever there was a good time to privatise justice, this is it. Justice, private or otherwise, will always be in society’s interest, and it is not as though the state has a monopoly on the common weal. Any citizen is free to seek the common good and most claim to do precisely that. For citizens to help discover the law is not alien to the law. In a sense, it means responsible citizens are obliged to seek justice when the state fails in its duty, especially a failed authority that selectively serves the interests of those who control the state. The captured South African state is a fine example of a partisan entity that, by definition, is incapable of seeking the common good. You co...
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