Home » Shaun Abrahams ‘Poem’ – “The Meeting at Luthuli House”

Shaun Abrahams ‘Poem’ – “The Meeting at Luthuli House”

With typical South African humour, social media has presented NPA boss Shaun Abrahams’ explanation in Parliament Friday for why he was at a meeting at Luthuli House – the day before he issued a controversial summons to Pravin Gordhan – into “performance poetry”. Abrahams presence at the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg, at a meeting also attended […]

04-11-16 14:24

With typical South African humour, social media has presented NPA boss Shaun Abrahams’ explanation in Parliament Friday for why he was at a meeting at Luthuli House – the day before he issued a controversial summons to Pravin Gordhan – into “performance poetry”.

Abrahams presence at the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg, at a meeting also attended by South African President Jacob Zuma, was considered rather suspicious by many when, less than 24 hours later, he issued the summons to South Africa’s Minister of Finance to face criminal charges, along with two of Gordhan’s former colleagues at SARS (SA Revenue Services).

The summons for all three have since been dropped by the National Prosecuting Authority. Abrahams is currently addressing Parliament’s justice committee on his decision to withdraw the charges.

Watch Abrahams’ “performance poetry” in Parliament today – uploaded by well known SA writer Eusebius McKaiser (with full transcript beneath it). In typical SA style, the video is funny… and tragic.

The Meeting at Luthuli House… by Shaun Abrahams, NPA boss

It’s a Monday afternoon
I’m an hour away from a dentist appointment
Buses are burning
Shops are being looted
Vehicles and buildings are being vandalised
People are being assaulted
It’s a state of anarchy
I receive a phone call
From the Minister of Justice
Who requests my assistance at a briefing
It’s an emergency briefing
I attend this briefing
I didn’t attend this meeting at Luthuli House to meet with ANC officials
I attended this meeting to meet with ministers in a security cluster
Of course I wish that it wasn’t that venue
Otherwise I wouldn’t be speaking about it today
The meeting was necessary
It impacted on the security of this country
And that’s why I attended that meeting