THE law has no eyes, and this is according to Deputy President Paul Mashatile.
During the questions and answers in the National Assembly on Thursday, 9 November, he told members of Parliament that criminal justice didn't care who committed a crime.
He was answering a question from EFF member Busisiwe Mkhwebane who wanted to know why the justice system fails or appears to fail to act against President Cyril Ramaphosa in connection with the Phala Phala farm scandal.
She said it was disappointing that the ANC-led government talks about combating crime, including corruption and money laundering, yet there are instances like the Phala Phala case involving concealed cash and potential tax evasion.
"The South African Reserve Bank, SARS and Public Protector have all found in favour of the president. The only person who was committed to deal with this was removed from the system," she said.
Mkhwebane was referring to herself as she was fired as the Public Protector on the grounds of misconduct and incompetence in September.
Mashatile said when the law has been implemented, it does not look and say this one is the president and let us treat him differently.
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"You would recall that right from the beginning with allegations of Phala Phala and anything else, the president himself said, 'I subject myself to the processes of the law.' Let those agencies that have been tasked to do the task. Let them be allowed to do it. Let them investigate and give them their space. So, once they've done so, I think we must be able to say thank you very much for doing the work we accept the reports. I don't think we must want to accept the reports that we want that we anticipated," he said.
He told the house to have confidence in the country's law enforcement agencies.
"It's just that the problem is that we as a public sometimes become the court ourselves, and we find people guilty when they're not found guilty by the court of laws," said Mashatile.
He said one of his tasks is to convene regular meetings with the National Assembly Speaker and chairpersons of the National Council of Provinces to streamline the legislative programme.
He said several issues President Cyril Ramaphosa raised during the State Of The Nation Address require legislation, and they have to be processed.
If the bill does not meet the standard, it's sent back to be worked on again.
"We make sure that we are vigorous," he said.
Mashatile said as Leader of Government Business, he ensures that bills that come to Parliament meet the standard.
