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R/£ Held on a drinking charge, he defends Malema with a song
March 12, 2010 Edition 3
Fienie Grobler, Xolani Mbanjwa and CARYN DOLLEY
TOP ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu sang for his supper while he was in custody on a drunk-driving charge yesterday.
He was pulled off the road in Cape Town yesterday morning - but this didn't stop him from doing his job of polishing the ANC 's image.
Sapa phoned Mthembu to get his comment on youth leader Julius Malema's latest outburst and was unaware he was in custody.
In a 21-minute telephonic interview with Sapa he passionately defended Malema, when, to the amazement of the reporter, he burst into song
"Don't blame Julius. In fact, on this one I will defend him," said Mthembu, speaking on the criminal complaint against Malema for singing "Kill the boers, they are rapists".
"You must blame the ANC. But when you blame the ANC, then contextualise it," said Mthembu, before he started singing the "Kill the boers" song to Sapa over the phone.
Mthembu was arrested on the N2, near the Pinelands offramp, at about 7.50am, and released from the Mowbray police station after 2pm with a warning to appear in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court on March 24.
"It is a strange time of day to be under the influence... They had to hold him to allow him to sober up," said JP Smith, Cape Town's mayoral committee member for safety and security.
Sapa phoned him at 9.22am for comment on the Malema story, and a 21-minute interview followed.
When called back at 11.23am to ask if he had been arrested for drunk driving, Mthembu again answered his phone, but this time the call lasted only 40 seconds. He replied: "I can't comment".
Shortly after Mthembu was pulled over for driving in the N2 bus lane, the party's former provincial chairman, Mcebisi Skwatsha, apparently also pulled up and stopped officers from handcuffing him.
This is according to Ghost Squad members who stopped Mthembu, 51, on the N2, near the Pinelands off-ramp, early yesterday.
They said they detected "a strong smell of alcohol" on Mthembu's breath and arrested him.
But they said Skwatsha first prevented them from handcuffing Mthembu, and then officers at Mowbray police station had initially refused to open a drunk driving case.
Soon after his arrest, Mthembu was taken to the Safely Home Anti Drunk-driving Operations War Room, commonly known as The Shadow, in Athlone, where he was tested with a breathalyser.
This allegedly showed he was more than three times over the legal limit.
Yesterday, an hour after his release from police custody on R500 bail, Mthembu spoke to the Cape Times on his cellphone and confirmed he was to appear in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court on March 24.
He refused to say where he had been driving to or from. "Can we rather leave that for the court?" he asked.
Mthembu laughed heartily when the Cape Times reporter said she heard that he had had a busy morning.
Smith said Ghost Squad member no idea who he was when they arrested Mthembu.
"There wasa strong smell of alcohol on him.
"Skwatsha pulled over, even though he's not allowed in the bus lane, and told the officers they mustn't handcuff (Mthembu)."
Smith said the Ghost Squad members took Mthembu to the Mowbray police station, but "someone may have called ahead saying they're coming".
"The officer at the desk was not keen on opening a case. A SAPS officer then made a comment that the metro police officers who arrested (Mthembu) should themselves be arrested."
The Ghost Squad members had then taken Mthembu to the Shadow centre. "His results showed 0.85, while the legal limit is 0.24, which means he was nearly four times over that ... We've got video footage and audio recordings from the second he was brought into the facility to the second he left," Smith said.
Mthembu was then taken back to Mowbray police station, where a case was opened.
An investigator looking into the matter said there were more problems at the station when SAPS officers gave the Ghost Squad two case numbers.
If a wrong case number was placed on the breathalyser results, it could have been rejected by the court.
He said once the correct case number was given, Mowbray police station's commissioner, May-Louise Dyers, had reprimanded the implicated members and sorted the matter out.
Skwatsha and ANC member Kholeka Mqulwana were also spotted at the station yesterday while Mthembu was being processed.
He was eventually released on bail after 1pm.
Opposition parties called for Mthembu to face the full might of the law,.
DA spokesman on transport Stuart Farrow said Mthembu's arrest should serve as a warning that nobody was above the law.
Cope spokesman Phillip Dexter said Mthembu's actions were "shocking", while ID secretary-general Haniff Hoosen intimated that Mthembu could have been drunk when he defended Malema.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said Mthembu's arrest "proves that no one is above the law".
The ANC's interim party leader in the province, Membathisi Mdladlana, yesterday reacted in shock when reporters asked about Mthembu's arrest.
"I'm hearing this from you for the first time," he exclaimed.
"I didn't know Mthembu is in the Western Cape," Mdladlana said.
In a media release issued last night, Community Safety MEC Lennit Max said he had requested a full report from the provincial police commissioner, Mzwandile Petros.
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