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
Exactly 50 years ago Frantz Fanon wrote that the curse of post-colonial Africa were the leaders who took over from the colonialists only to become black colonialists themselves. He warned that such people take power from the whites to serve themselves, not the people, while using the rhetoric of a better life for all. He called such leaders the comprador. You have become a comprador even before you take formal power as an official politician. The comprador, according to Fanon, is engaged in “conspicuous consumption”. Please check the meaning of this concept in the dictionary, sir. – Andile Mngxitama, in an open letter to Julius Malema published in The Sowetan
