Reports of what appears to be yet another targeted hit on a crime and corruption buster in SA ought to raise red flags about the dangers faced by investigators at the forefront of fighting this scourge.
Last week, an SA Revenue Service (Sars) lawyer, Adv Coreth Naude, who has been involved in the tax inquiry involving high-profile individuals, was shot while driving in uMhlanga. According to police, she was driving into a hotel when two men opened fire on her car.
Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter described Naude’s attack as a shocking act intended to intimidate and an attempted assassination. Naude’s attack came a week after a City of Johannesburg forensic investigator was shot dead. The investigator, Zenzele Sithole, was part of the city’s group forensic and investigation services. Sithole had been probing a number of graft cases and had according to reports feared that his life was in danger.
Both Naude and Sithole’s cases are not isolated. According to Corruption Watch, the fight against the corrupt in SA is laborious and fraught with danger, especially for whistle-blowers.
There have been many such reported attacks on people fighting crime and corruption including whistle-blowers which are a threat to the rule of law. What these cases highlight is the need for heightened security and protection by our law enforcement of crime and corruption busters if we are to win the war against this pandemic.
Corruption threatens the sustainability of our economic development and robs the poor. It is also worth noting that targeted attacks on the people fighting against corruption negatively affect international perceptions about our country as a gangster state.
What makes matters worse is when those behind these targeted hits are not arrested and swiftly brought before the law. Our law enforcement must leave no stone unturned in pursuit of those behind these dastardly acts.
We call on the new minister of police to make it his priority to ensure that those who fight against corruption are protected and that assassinations don’t become the defining character of those who expose the rot.
These latest chilling attacks must jolt us all into action to safeguard our country from descending into the abyss of lawlessness.
SOWETAN SAYS | Protect crime, graft busters
Reports of what appears to be yet another targeted hit on a crime and corruption buster in SA ought to raise red flags about the dangers faced by investigators at the forefront of fighting this scourge.
Last week, an SA Revenue Service (Sars) lawyer, Adv Coreth Naude, who has been involved in the tax inquiry involving high-profile individuals, was shot while driving in uMhlanga. According to police, she was driving into a hotel when two men opened fire on her car.
Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter described Naude’s attack as a shocking act intended to intimidate and an attempted assassination. Naude’s attack came a week after a City of Johannesburg forensic investigator was shot dead. The investigator, Zenzele Sithole, was part of the city’s group forensic and investigation services. Sithole had been probing a number of graft cases and had according to reports feared that his life was in danger.
Both Naude and Sithole’s cases are not isolated. According to Corruption Watch, the fight against the corrupt in SA is laborious and fraught with danger, especially for whistle-blowers.
There have been many such reported attacks on people fighting crime and corruption including whistle-blowers which are a threat to the rule of law. What these cases highlight is the need for heightened security and protection by our law enforcement of crime and corruption busters if we are to win the war against this pandemic.
Corruption threatens the sustainability of our economic development and robs the poor. It is also worth noting that targeted attacks on the people fighting against corruption negatively affect international perceptions about our country as a gangster state.
What makes matters worse is when those behind these targeted hits are not arrested and swiftly brought before the law. Our law enforcement must leave no stone unturned in pursuit of those behind these dastardly acts.
We call on the new minister of police to make it his priority to ensure that those who fight against corruption are protected and that assassinations don’t become the defining character of those who expose the rot.
These latest chilling attacks must jolt us all into action to safeguard our country from descending into the abyss of lawlessness.