ETV news reports that lawyers for Jackie Selebi is to approach Menzi Simelane, National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) in order to have his trial stopped. They report that Selebi will argue that there was a conspiracy against him and that the prosecution was tainted by prosecutorial misconduct.
Details are still sketchy, but the initial legal [...]
Posts under ‘Judiciary’
Selebi’s Zuma option
Radebe (LLM Leipzig) strikes again
Minister of Justice, Jeff Radebe, is a learned man. He obtained a B Iuris degree at the University of Zululand, and finished an LLM in International Law at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig in 1981. He also studied at the Lenin International School, Moscow in 1985, but it is unclear what qualification he obtained [...]
Mpshe’s appointment: scandalous attack on independence of the judiciary
Maybe we are all suffering from abuse-of-power-fatigue? What with the probably unlawful dropping of charges against President Jacob Zuma, the probably unlawful firing of Vusi Pikoli as National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), the clearly unlawful granting of “medical parole” to Schabir Shaik – that “terminally ill” (ha!) friend of President Zuma’s - (the same friend who was [...]
What is our commitment to transformation?
A while ago I was lambasted by some readers for suggesting that some senior black leaders – including Jackie Selebi, President Jacob Zuma, Advocates for Transformation and the Black Lawyers Association – were guilty of hypocrisy because they seem to support the appointment of white lawyers in high profile cases. Why is there no outcry when [...]
Incredible, ridiculous, dangerous
Does Michael Hulley really believe the things he says in his replying affidavit to the application by the DA to have the decision of the NPA to drop the charges against President Jacob Zuma reviewed? Did he have one cup of tea too many before drafting this affidavit or does it reflect Hulley’s – and [...]
How to defend the indefensible
This morning I unexpectedly found myself on E-TV, once again debating Mr Paul Ngobeni. (The producers failed to inform me of Mr Ngobeni’s presence.) The topic was – once again – whether it was wise to launch a legal challenge against the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) decision not to investigate the complaints by John Hlophe [...]
Do we need a jury system?
Ronald Kevin Roberts (alias Ronald Suresh Roberts) published an intriguing – if wrongheaded – opinion piece in the Sowetan yesterday. In it he argues that the jury system should be reintroduced in South Africa because a “jury is the exact opposite of the sort of illiberal clique that until recently dominated key institutions of legal [...]
Haikona Motata (III)
Driving under the influence of liquor is a rather serious matter – especially if you are so drunk (after drinking one cup of “tea” too many) that you reverse your car through someone’s garden wall. Even the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) must surely agree that it constitutes a breach of the ethics guidelines for judges when a judge is [...]
Not lazy, just callous and disrespectful of the Constitution
When Prof Jonathan Jansen called Basic Education, Minister Angie Motshekga, a “lazy and incompetent minister”, that great charmer and former spin-doctor of the ANC, Jessie Duarte, was not amused. Duarte, who during her time as spin-doctor developed the brilliant media strategy of insulting and attacking any journalist who dared to ask her a question, at the time [...]
Has Gwede Mantashe and Co taken its toll on our judiciary?
The judiciary in South Africa (as elswhere in constitutional democracies) finds itself in a precarious position. It has enormous powers to declare invalid legislation and acts by the executive and is often required to intervene in highly contentious, politically charged, matters like the saga around the prosecution of President Jacob Zuma. When doing so judges [...]
