Was Teffo’s arrest a way of trying to intimidate the defence?

When Chief Justice Raymond Zondo spoke out this week about the arrest of advocate Malesela Teffo, he was exercising what is known legally as “taking judicial notice” of events in the wider world.

And that is why we should all sit up and take notice – because there are much wider issues involved, as no doubt Zondo intended to point out.

Teffo was manhandled into cuffs in a courtroom by police officers who looked equipped to fight a war, not detain a man of the law.

Teffo is the defence advocate representing four of the five accused in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial and was detained inside the High Court in Pretoria last Thursday.

Zondo pointed out that there was “no justifiable reason” why the SA Police Service (Saps) could not have waited until after proceedings to carry out the arrest.

No reason, either, we might point out, for them to grandstand in such a thuggish, militaristic way.

The reason for Teffo’s warrant of arrest is not the relevant issue here.

The relevant issue is the timing…right in the middle of the Meyiwa trial.

Coincidence? Does anybody really believe that, given the whole police performance in this controversial murder investigation?

It took the cops almost eight years to bring the case to court after the Bafana Bafana star was shot dead in the home of his girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo, in 2014.

There are many unanswered questions about the investigation. Were they trying to intimidate the defence?

That’s a legitimate question. As ominous is the fact that Teffo has apparently been a legal thorn in the side of the Saps, appearing for a number of ill-treated officers in recent years.

This whole unsavoury incident leaves an image of our police force as one which is being used to settle scores, rather than enforcing the law without fear or favour.