Police earning the hatred of those they're sworn to serve: iLIVE

President Jacob Zuma should understand that it is not about how many incidents happen for people to take the view that we are drifting back to apartheid, but how things are done by the organs of state. Do they adhere to the founding values as prescribed in our constitution?

My view is that a quiet state of emergency has been declared in Marikana by the government. People are living in fear of the police and miners are randomly arrested for murders. Strangely, the police who killed 34 miners are not being investigated. Where is equality before the law?

The police handling of service-delivery protests nowadays is similar to the way apartheid police handled protests, which led people to hate police with passion; the same is happening at present.

The Andries Tatane case is an example.

Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit members have been charged with numerous counts, including murders, in the Durban Regional Court. It is reported that they terrorise several communities around KwaZulu-Natal. Their modus operandi is similar to that of Eugene de Kock's Vlakplaas men during South Africa's dark days and the affected communities, like it or not, are re-living those dark days.

The National Prosecuting Authority is prepared to taint its reputation and be in contempt of court rather than ask a court to compel Zuma to hand over any documents (including the spy tapes), which it has decided to hand over to the DA.

It is one thing if the NPA did not intend submitting the spy tapes and it is another if it would have submitted them but cannot get them from President Zuma.

To rub salt in the taxpayers' wound, the Minister of Public Works has resorted to the apartheid-era legislation, the National Key Points Act of 1980, in defence of irregular expenditure of R238-million on revamping President Zuma's private residence in Nkandla. This is a sign of a rotten administration. When things go wrong, it's apartheid, but they are comfortable to use apartheid laws to enrich themselves.

Where is South Africa heading under President Zuma's watch?