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DA hypocrisy in Nel arrest

The DA was alarmed at the excessive presence of police officers at Scorpions investigator Gerrie Nel's arrest. DA safety and security spokesman Dianne Kohler-Barnard said: "It appears police acted with clear intent to intimidate, and send a very public message about who is in control... sending in 20 armed police could serve no other purpose, as Nel's appearance in court could have been secured through a phone call, treating him with the respect that he was due."

The DA was alarmed at the excessive presence of police officers at Scorpions investigator Gerrie Nel's arrest. DA safety and security spokesman Dianne Kohler-Barnard said: "It appears police acted with clear intent to intimidate, and send a very public message about who is in control... sending in 20 armed police could serve no other purpose, as Nel's appearance in court could have been secured through a phone call, treating him with the respect that he was due."

What "respect" is the DA talking about? The party was silent when their opponent ANC president Jacob Zuma was hounded and humiliated in a theatre of a packed-media gallery. If the DA was a human rights spokesman, it would not distinguish the dispensing of those rights along political lines, but defend them irrespective of political affiliation.

For this reason, one can conclude that the DA is merely playing political games and not helping one iota in the strengthening of our democratic dispensation.

We are disturbed about the charges and counter charges between the NPA and the SAPS and we hope the ANC national conference resolution to disband the Scorpions and integrate it into the SAPS would enable us to have a police service focused on combating crime instead of mutual mudslinging.

Phillip Musekwa, Leondale

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