Despite Murder Charge, Mbatha Appointed Head of the Army

PRESS STATEMENT BY THE FOUNDATION FOR EQUALITY BEFORE LAW: APPOINTMENT OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL LAWRENCE KHULEKANI MBATHA AS HEAD OF THE ARMY

Injustice and the disregard for the provisions of our Constitution have become such a common phenomenon in South Africa that it is taken for granted in most circles. The appointment of Lt. Gen. Mbatha as chief of the South African Army is a result of a rotten legal system where the right is unilaterally and unlawfully applied by the National Prosecuting Authority.

On May 25, 1993, Mbatha instructed Walter Smiles to throwlaunch a hand grenade into the Trust Bank Building in Kimberley in the Northern Cape. Mbatha transported Smiles to the scene and was present when the hand grenade was thrown. One person died as a result of the hand grenade explosion, and forty civilians were injured, including women and children.

A charge of murder

Lt. Genl. Mbatha applied for amnesty, but the Amnesty Committee found that the incident was not committed in the conflict of the past or associated with a political objective. Amnesty was denied to Mbatha. There is therefore a charge of murder and attempted murder against Lt. Gen. Mbatha pending and his appointment as head of the South African Army shocking.

The crude way in which the National Prosecuting Authority disregards the provisions of Article 9 of the Constitution and law and justice in general,  is further emphasized when it is taken into account that the acts for which former members of the security branch are currently being prosecuted, are  without exception associated with  a political objective and committed in the conflict of the past and therefore fall within the ambit of the concluding paragraph  of the Interim Constitution. By contrast, the murder and attempted murder committed by Lt. Gen. Mbatha, according to the emphatic finding of the amnesty committee, was not committed with a political objective in the conflict of the past. It therefore does not fall within the provisions of the concluding paragraph of the Interim Constitution and is, for all legal purposes, ordinary murder and attempted murder.

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PRESS STATEMENT BY THE FOUNDATION FOR EQUALITY BEFORE LAW: APPOINTMENT OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL LAWRENCE KHULEKANI MBATHA AS HEAD OF THE ARMY

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