Advocates for Transformation (AFT) has condemned what it describes as a growing campaign of threats and intimidation targeting Advocate Sandile Khumalo and the organisation’s national chairperson, Advocate Myron Dewrance SC.
Khumalo is serving as one of the co-commissioners at the Madlanga Commission, which is investigating allegations surrounding the criminal justice system.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, AFT said it had previously chosen not to publicise the alleged threats but had now decided it could no longer remain silent as the situation had escalated.
The organisation said the threats were allegedly connected to disciplinary proceedings involving a legal practitioner who was charged with professional misconduct.
According to AFT, the communications had become increasingly aggressive and were no longer limited to the two advocates, with family members and other individuals also allegedly being targeted.
The organisation said the threats had, for the first time, included explicit references to sexual violence against women.
AFT said the threatening messages were sent from several cellphone numbers to different recipients.
The organisation claimed that the messages repeatedly mentioned Dewrance and Khumalo, invoked AFT by name and, in some cases, suggested that the senders knew the locations, workplaces or movements of those being targeted.
AFT said evidence relating to the communications had been preserved.
The organisation warned that the matter should not be regarded as a private dispute or as an issue affecting only the individuals named in the threats.
Instead, AFT described the alleged intimidation as part of a broader and worrying pattern in South Africa, where individuals involved in the administration of justice are subjected to threats, intimidation and, in extreme cases, assassination.
According to AFT, several of the threatening communications blamed Khumalo for the events at the centre of the dispute and allegedly instructed Dewrance and members of his family to “blame Sandile”.
AFT said investigations into the matter were continuing and that the individuals responsible for the threatening and intimidating communications had not yet been identified.