forfeiture is unlawful

After Simon Prophet had been kicked out of his home in 2008, Simon Prophet spent a year petitioning on the streets of Cape Town.

Collecting the signatures was an arduous task.

But ten thousand people signed.

Simon Prophet has spoken personally to everyone who has signed and he expresses his deep gratitude to all who have shown their courage to come forward and support the recovery of his home and he also says thank you to those who have included him in their prayers.

A survey that canvasses a pool of 10 000 people is massive and provides an accurate barometer as to how South Africans think on this subject.

Democratically speaking then we can conclude that civil asset forfeiture is not OK and also that the unlawful sections of the Prevention of Organized Crime Act of 1998 are not acceptable to the majority of ordinary people.

Supreme non-derogable law dictates that we are "presumed innocent" until proven otherwise and therefore, in the context of South Africa, it follows as a matter of fact that if you have been acquitted of criminal wrongdoing in a criminal court of law and you have no criminal record and the crime of which you have been accused does not nor ever has existed then you are therefore undeniably innocent and so it goes without saying that civil asset forfeiture in the face of a "not guilty" verdict is unconstitutional.

It is obtuse to argue otherwise.

What follows below are the 10 000 signatures.