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Come clean, Mr President

All hell is breaking loose around our furtive president, but none of this would have happened if he had only taken us into his confidence.

All hell is breaking loose around our furtive president, but none of this would have happened if he had only taken us into his confidence.

No one believes the official line that Mbeki suspended chief prosecutor and Scorpions boss Vusi Pikoli because of an "irretrievable breakdown" in his relationship with his political masters.

Is our national police chief Jackie Selebi a suspected crook with a warrant of arrest hanging over his head? And if so why is his friend and comrade Mbeki risking all to protect him?

The powers of the three arms of government - the executive, the legislature and the judiciary - are finely balanced to ensure sufficient checks and balances for a functioning democracy.

That means the judiciary is subject to political oversight. But the law specifically forbids anyone, including the president, from interfering with the judicial process.

If recent reports are credible, Mbeki and his Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla have exerted ever more political interference to protect Comrade Selebi.

No doubt bundling our chief cop and head of Interpol off to the cells on suspicion of participating in assorted illegalities with his good buddies in organised crime would have handed South Africa a black eye. And that required political management.

Come clean, Mr President, just take us into your confidence and tell us the truth.

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