DRINK, DRIVE & WALK FREE

Wow! That certainly does indicate that there is a pattern here. If this had been an ordinary member of Joe Public, the metro police would have been all over them like a rash and they would have been inside a cell, quicker than the tow trucks could have even arrived on the scene.

In retrospect, we now all know what has happened to Robert McBride, he is free as a bird. So much for keeping corruption at bay. The ANC only follow the laws that suit them and when it suits them and they themselves should be brought to task.

Regards
Nikki

Drink, drive and walk free

Kwanele Sosibo

He was not disciplined by the African National Congress (ANC), but he voluntarily retired from his post to join the 2010 World Cup’s local organising committee as its head of security. Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, who rolled his car last December while driving on the R511 near Centurion, faces the minor charge of reckless driving despite being described by several witnesses as being “blind drunk” at the scene of the accident.

Some witnesses also claimed that McBride’s colleagues, who were operating outside of their jurisdiction when they came to his rescue, threatened and assaulted bystanders and removed evidence from McBride’s car. His blood was not tested for alcohol content. McBride’s boss, Ekurhuleni mayor Duma Nkosi, defended his metro police chief just hours after the accident, even though police had only begun investigating the incident.

Nkosi also failed to confirm whether a breathalyser test had been conducted at the scene, and brazenly claimed that McBride was sober enough to drive, saying it was “unfortunate” that “some people took the view that he was drunk”. The ANC’s lack of disciplinary rigour in its handling of these cases is part of a pattern.

In 1999, ANC senior party adviser and Cape Metropolitan Council (CMC) executive committee member Mzukisi Gaba was convicted of driving under the influence and fined R12 000 or six months in jail. Although the council suspended him after the verdict, the ANC called for his suspension to be lifted immediately, remarking that he had “suffered enough”.

He was reappointed to the CMC in 1999. In December 2005, Eastern Cape ANC legislature member Mike Basopu was arrested for a second time that year on charges of driving while under the influence of alcohol. In both instances, the ANC turned a blind eye. Basopu was nabbed yet again this month for drunk driving. Although he appeared in the East London Magistrate’s Court earlier this week, the case was withdrawn pending the result of a blood analysis.

He remains the portfolio chairperson for the provincial health committee. Earlier last year, North West ANC member of the legislature Ndleleni Duma received a standing ovation from his party in a show of moral support ahead of his court case on charges of drunken driving. After a protracted trial he was acquitted on a technicality, when the magistrate found that the route he was said to be driving on at the time of his arrest was not properly noted on the charge sheet.

Duma also pleaded guilty to a charge of theft of R51 000 and was fined R30 000 in the Travelgate scandal. He remains provincial minister for sports, arts and culture in North West.