The assassination of the prime suspect in the Thomas and Cloete Murray murders is not an isolated incident but part of a wider breakdown in the criminal justice system. This is according to Glynnis Breytenbach, Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson for Justice and Constitutional Development.

“Daily assassinations, a captured police service, a prosecuting authority in disarray and the rise of a mafia state are all the byproducts of a criminal justice system in tatters,” she said in a statement issued last week.

The DA has demanded that the Ministers of Justice, Police, Correctional Services and State Security present a joint action plan to Parliament by 31 October. Breytenbach said: “We afford these Ministers until 31 October to present a plan that will address these failures and protect the rule of law.” If they fail, she added, the party will escalate the matter.

She laid the blame squarely on decades of African National Congress (ANC) governance, saying: “the ANC has spent decades destroying the rule of law in South Africa to protect its cadres.” Breytenbach argued that the: “ultimate victims of ANC-sponsored destruction of the rule of law are the ordinary South African citizens, who suffer the scourge of crime daily.”

Breytenbach said the DA’s call was not about political gain but about national stability. “The DA doesn’t act in its own interests, but in the interest of its voters, and we will therefore not allow these Ministers to pass the buck for the umpteenth time,” she declared. The party insisted that the criminal justice system could be repaired, but that: “political will is crucial in finding a solution. South Africa has shown in the past that it can come back from the brink through collaboration, and we must find a way to do this once more.”