Justice Johan Kriegler has been vilified by some because his organisation, Freedom Under Law (FUL), decided to challenge the decision of the Judicial Services Commission not to investigate the charges against Judge President John Hlophe. Kriegler argued that it was necessary to take this action in order to defend the Rule of Law. If even a small bit of what is shown on the video below and alleged elsewhere by Abahlali baseMjondolo is true, it conclusively demonstrates why the defense of the Rule of Law is not a frolic to protect the rich and well heeled alone.
If members of the police take sides in local conflicts and if local politicians do not respect the law because they think that state institutions will not respect the law and will turn a blind eye to their lawlessness and criminality, social activism and political mobilisation – both essential for the thriving of democracy – will be snuffed out and our beautiful Constitution will not be worth the paper it is written on. Anyone who dares to oppose the whims of local power brokers and charlatans acting under the protection of local politicians will face the threat of violence or even death.
This is slightly more important, I suspect, than whether John Hlophe is a crook or whether the members of the JSC are unprincipled political hacks doing the bidding of the ANC. Watch this video and weep.
Thank you Prof: In a few short months I will have worked with the disadvantaged in the communities for 10 years, originally as an ANC devotee, and I’ve seen it all.
These are the first really awakening signs for the general public of what is unfolding in this most beautiful and promising of countries.
Talk is talk. Action is action and says it all.
In watching SABC Nuus tonight, I distinctly noticed that they did not cover the top story (or at least it should have been) for today, the killing of an innocent women by (lets face it) trigger happy police who probably have an ego thing about killing criminals, now thanks to Zuma and Cele.
I’m angry, people are angry… the times they are a changin…. ‘Dylan’, obviously.
@ Sirjay …
You’ve hit it on the nail! A bit late though … I was advocating this rising frustrations ages ago.
If you look under the other topics you will see every time someone vents their frustrated views about the inequalities (socially and economically of course), they are put down for being irrational and trouble-makers. I can safely say that this form of defence will become very, very futile in the near future.
Also see: http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/abahlali-basemjondolo-our-movement-is-under-attack/
Harold: there has to be hope, its a must! We cannot collapse and give up hope; we must continue, withoutout fear or favour. We must.!
SOUTH AFRICA EPISODE 4: The Black Nationalists Strike Back …
It is the first year of the reign of Emperor JZ, who overthrew the dark lord TM. The alliance had succeeded in its bid to secure of the Senate and the minds of the majority, for now. But the White resistance still wields considerable power in the Galaxy and though efforts have been made to show their willingness for peace, the growing black nationalists are weary of them and do not think they are being sincere.
The leader of the Youth Storm troopers, JM has gone on the offensive and is attacking as much white outposts as he can, but their force field is far too strong.
Unbeknown to the white resistance, the cloning of hundreds of JM’s has been caused by the energy radiating from the force field and it will only be a matter of time when it will be breached …..
This is indeed sad and shocking. I also heard Stuart Wilson at John Dugard’s symposium talk about what is going on in Kennedy Road.
But the reason I am writing is to express my disappointment with Pierre for keeping mum on the recent landmark judgment of the Constitutional Court in the Mazibuko case (please forgive me if he spoke on radio or tv about it and I all missed it while in the office).
A judgment that is quite incredible setting us back, as a colleague of mine said “ten years”. I had the same feeling while reading it – brings us back to Soobramooney. And…the Mazibuko case was unanimous, nogal!
Pierre, may be we could do with a little less on Jacob Zuma and Hlophe and more about what is happening at the CC.
I’ll call it the clawback judgment with its narrow interpretation of previous CC judgments such as the TAC case, and its Executive-mindedness. I thought it was an extraordinary judgment – it even succeeded in making the conservative SCA look progressive. Well that’s just an aside – I don’t want to throw around labels that have become meaningless as that would divert attention from the substance.
It is indeed a sad video which reflects a graver South African reality: the value of and respect for life, limb and property vis-á-vis the question of survival-of-the-fittest in a society embedded in violence, both from state and citizen. I find it extremely burdening when I see post-apartheid governments trampling on the (constitutional) rights of the very people they’re meant to defend and the very people they’ve been fighting for over the last decades. It seems like a typical psychological phenomenon called “the victim becoming the perpetrator”. Worse is, the message sent by such capricious state action: the state representing a “machine” against its people instead of it representing its people – which ideologically is the idea of a democracy. This of course (rhetorically) begs the question as to whether we are living in a democracy in South Africa. But this aside, when the South African state sets an example of violence against its people (much like it did during the apartheid years!), then I find it depressing to see that post-apartheid rulers have learnt zero from its recent history and even less from its young democracy!
As to the rule of law: how can a state expect its citizens to respect the (rule of) law whilst it is the very machine suppressing its people through caprice?
Charlotte:
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=83847