CAPE TOWN, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Saturday voiced outrage at a burglary at the Office of the Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, saying the break-in highlights the seriousness of crime in the country.
The ANC has learnt with shock of the burglary in Midrand near Johannesburg in the early hours of Saturday morning, ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said.
"This dastardly criminal act, targeting the office of the highest judicial officer in our country, should leave all South Africans outraged and our law enforcement officers determined to speedily find and bring to book its perpetrators," said Kodwa.
The ANC, he said, has always held the view that one criminal act, regardless of against whom it is perpetrated, is one too many.
"Targeting the Office of the Chief Justice however is a direct assault on the sanctity of the institutions we, as South Africans, hold dear as propping up our Constitutional order," said Kodwa.
All people in South Africa are entitled to live in safety and free from crime and they also want a strong, robust criminal justice system in which they have the fullest confidence in, he said.
"The cowardly act of breaking into the Offie of the Chief Justice is an affront on these aspirations and an attack on the very fibre of our democracy," Kodwa said in a statement emailed to Xinhua.
The ANC therefore calls on law enforcement agencies to use all resources at their disposal to ensure that these criminals are dealt with to the full extent of the law, Kodwa said.
The ANC further calls on the Office of the Chief Justice to ensure that all its remaining information is secured and mitigate against any efforts to undermine or compromise the dispensing of justice as a result of the break in, the spokesperson said.
"What is required is for a collaborative effort across our law enforcement agencies, sparing no effort and with the full support and confidence of our people, to make those responsible to account," he said.
South Africa, which has one of the highest crime rates in the world, reported 807,000 housebreaking and home robberies in 2015/16, according to Statistics South Africa.
