Parliament – Parliament's portfolio committee on justice has informed MPs that a planned briefing by the Office of the Chief Justice, which was burgled at the weekend, will not go ahead.
DA justice spokeswoman Glynnis Breytenbach said no explanation was given to committee members other than that the co-operation of the department could not be secured and that therefore all meetings of the committee for the rest of the week had been cancelled.
The committee was scheduled to be briefed by the Office of the Chief Justice and Judicial Administration on its annual budget and performance plan on Thursday morning. Breytenbach said she was stunned and angered by the last-minute cancellation.
"It seems that some on the justice committee would prefer to stick their heads in the sand rather than urgently discuss the deeply troubling break-in at the office of the Chief Justice, which can only be viewed as an attack on the judiciary."
Breytenbach wrote to the chairman of the committee, Mathole Motshekga, earlier this week to demand that the briefing be attended by the ministers of justice, police and state security so that they could answers questions on the burglary at the office of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng in Midrand.
She said Motshekga has failed to respond to the request.
The break-in happened in the early hours of Saturday and saw thieves make off with 15 computers containing sensitive information about Constitutional Court judges and officials.
It came a day after the Constitutional Court handed down a ruling directed at resolving the social grant crisis, which a full bench laid at the door of Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini. Police said on Wednesday that they had arrested three men in connection with the crime.