The entire ANC must clearly and forcefully endorse independence of the judiciary

As illustrative of the attacks, Jacob Zuma has recently claimed:

“No amount of intimidation or blackmail will change my position as I firmly believe that we should never allow for the establishment of a judiciary in which justice, fairness and due process are discretionary and are exclusively preserved for certain litigants and not others… Many in our society have watched this form of judicial abuse but choose to look the other way merely because of their antipathy towards me.”

Not to be outdone, Julius Malema, who significantly is the EFF representative on the Judicial Service Commission, claimed the following:

“We cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand against growing and now believable allegations that some prominent members of the judiciary are in the bankroll of the white capitalist establishment.”

What makes this statement even more outrageous than even its extravagant, unsubstantiated claims, is that the EFF had access to the so-called CR17 campaign records on which Malema appears to base his claim, which according to reliable reports contains no such evidence.

Zuma not only attacked Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who one should note was appointed as the DCJ during Mr Zuma’s term of office, but also trained his bile on Judge President of Gauteng Dunstan Mlambo by claiming that the judge breached the principle of separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary. He further claimed that Judge Mlambo could flip-flop on the same principle simply to punish him.

These are scandalous allegations against two distinguished members of the judiciary.

That Mr Zuma finds himself on the losing side of a series of judgments of courts and rulings of the Zondo Commission is solely attributable to his having no case in law either for ignoring the rulings of a judicial commission that he appointed, or the countless judgments that have found against his utterly groundless legal arguments before countless courts. In this Mr Zuma is doing a fine impersonation of Donald Trump and his sidekick Rudy Giuliani and their self-serving justifications for losing some 64 US court cases concerning tendentious claims of voter fraud.

Justice Zondo has conducted his commission with great diligence and commitment to process. Needless to say, he has not issued any final decision on the merits of the allegations of State Capture, yet the Zuma camp, fearing the inevitable, has moved into high speed to generate as much fake news as possible.

Judge President Mlambo has proved to be a truly outstanding leader of the Gauteng High Court. He has ensured that the court is an efficient institution, has encouraged the appointment of countless judges who have radically altered the demography and the commitment of the court to jurisprudential transformation, all of which marks him as a superb judicial leader who’s deeply committed to the vindication of the ideals of the Constitution.

Many in the legal community feel Judge President Mlambo should become South Africa’s next Chief Justice.

And while that is not certain, what is clear is that he should be celebrated for his achievements as opposed to being defamed for delivering careful judgments and exhibiting judicial leadership of the highest order. By all means, criticise the merits of judgments, but that of course is not the Zuma project.

The project is to undermine the entire institution in order to remain above and beyond the law. As the Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola so commendably said in response to the Zuma-Malema axis:

“An independent judiciary is a cornerstone of our constitutional democracy. Attacks, allegations and conspiracies against the judiciary can erode the confidence of society in the judiciary if not followed up with facts and conclusive investigations.”

This column has warned on a number of occasions that the model of constitutional democracy remains under significant threat, notwithstanding that Mr Zuma is no longer president and that he has been replaced by a constitutionalist, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Mr Lamola’s principled stance notwithstanding, both Secretary-General of the ANC Ace Magashule and his deputy, Jessie Duarte, have expressed contrary views in the recent past, referencing the idea of an ANC leadership that overrides constitutional tenets

 The ANC, as a collective, has yet to show it is committed to constitutional democracy, as its leader Mr Ramaphosa doubtless is, or that it is prepared to risk the ire of the rent-seekers within its ranks. Nor will it unequivocally condemn the conduct of Mr Zuma in his attempt to be placed beyond the reach of the law and to that end to destroy the legitimacy of the key institution that is the custodian of the rule of law – the judiciary. Continue the silence as an organisation and the inference that its commitment to party above the law will be irrefutable. DM