DA federal council chair Helen Zille.(Photo: EPA / NIC BOTHMA) 
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
The courts have been thrust into the spotlight lately – and not for their recent rulings but, rather, because of disparaging and silly comments by DA federal chairperson Helen Zille.
Zille has suggested – without providing a shred of evidence – that the Constitutional Court judges may have leaked information to the ANC, hence the latter’s decision to withdraw its application to the Electoral Court.
Fortunately, the Constitutional Court has ruled that the local government elections should go ahead between 27 October and 1 November 2021. Thus, they have proved Zille’s dangerous theory to be false. It is also worth noting that the application was brought by the IEC and not the ANC.
Zille had tweeted that: “The ANC’s withdrawal from the Electoral Court indicates that they have been tipped off that the IEC’s application to postpone the election was successful. If information is leaking from the ConCourt to the ANC, it is nothing short of a constitutional crisis.”
The ANC had gone to the Electoral Court – asking the court to compel the IEC to reopen its election timetable – after they missed the deadline to submit some of their candidates in more than 90 municipalities. The governing party later withdrew the application, saying it will await the outcome of the ConCourt’s decision before deciding on a course of action.
For Zille to make such comments is not only reckless but dangerous too.
She joins a band of political intolerants and populists who make dangerous utterances without backing up their claims with facts.
Her comments are no different from the disparaging “counter-revolutionary” label that some ANC leaders have apportioned to the judiciary.
The courts are the only arm of the state that still functions properly. Even when we saw the rule of law collapse after the government failed to quell the July unrest, and despite the way that, over time, Parliament has been shown to be a weak institution, we are left with the judiciary.
This is not to say that judges are above criticism, but such criticism has to be backed by facts.
So far there is nothing to show that the esteemed justices of the Constitutional Court are doing the ANC’s bidding.
We should be intolerant of such abuse of our judiciary, whether it is by a Helen Zille or a Gwede Mantashe. It is disingenuous of Zille to accuse the court of leaking to the ANC when the case before the court was not even brought by the ANC.
It is the IEC that seeks to postpone the elections based on the recommendations by the former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke.
If you follow Zille’s absurd argument then I’m sure she believes that Moseneke must also be part of this grand scheme to benefit the ANC.
Anyone who knows Moseneke and his integrity as a jurist would find that laughable.
Unfortunately, Zille is unstoppable and no one in the DA has the courage to confront her. She does as she pleases. When Mmusi Maimane dared to try to discipline the powerful Zille, he ended up being the one to leave the party.
John Steenhuisen is not about to start a fight with Zille. But, as was the case with Maimane, her antics continue to overshadow whatever it is that Steenhuisen is doing.
Few readers may be aware that the DA leader was on a charm offensive in North West this week, even visiting former DA MP Joe Seremane at his home.
The visit to Seremane – a long-standing member of the DA and one of its first black leaders – and a visit to struggling black farmers in Ramatlabama, near the Botswana border, were not without political meaning.
The DA has become an uncomfortable political home for younger black leaders – the latest to leave being former MP Phumzile Van Damme. Other prominent departures are well documented.
Surely, Steenhuisen was making a political statement, which unfortunately did not get traction because Zille had other plans – attracting all the attention to herself.
Attention-seeking has become her brand of politics, after all.
Whatever it is that is broken in our country, the judiciary is still standing. To try to drag it into the political terrain is a cheap political stunt.
Shame on you, Helen. DM168
Sibusiso Ngalwa is the politics editor of Newzroom Afrika and chair of the South African National Editors' Forum.
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper which is available for R25 at Pick n Pay, Exclusive Books and airport bookstores. For your nearest stockist, please click here.
