Quote of the week
Mr Zuma is no ordinary litigant. He is the former President of the Republic, who remains a public figure and continues to wield significant political influence, while acting as an example to his supporters… He has a great deal of power to incite others to similarly defy court orders because his actions and any consequences, or lack thereof, are being closely observed by the public. If his conduct is met with impunity, he will do significant damage to the rule of law. As this Court noted in Mamabolo, “[n]o one familiar with our history can be unaware of the very special need to preserve the integrity of the rule of law”. Mr Zuma is subject to the laws of the Republic. No person enjoys exclusion or exemption from the sovereignty of our laws… It would be antithetical to the value of accountability if those who once held high office are not bound by the law.
Secretary of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector including Organs of State v Zuma and Others (CCT 52/21) [2021] ZACC 18
Even where Malema is apparently pursuing radical change, in the mining industry, he is in fact helping to entrench the spoils system at the heart of Mbeki’s ANC. He recently complained that “those who go around spreading lies and rumours linking the ANC Youth League to big business people should stop doing so because it is not funny anymore”. However, as this column has previously observed, Malema is fronting a putsch by Mbeki-era apparatchiks to create a state-owned mining company. Malema’s presentation to Parliament’s mining portfolio committee last week contained some comic gems. Those who do not yet know how the spoils will be distributed should take note of Malema’s insistence that the state-owned mining company should be “under the direct supervision of the Department of Mineral Resources” and “not public enterprises”. – Anthony Butler in Business Day
