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
Et tu Trevor
Trevor Manual, who just loves to defend the corrupt arms deal, is at it again. Last night Manuel told a packed gathering at the University of Cape Town that saying anything against the Dalai Lama was in “many quarters equivalent to trying to shoot Bambi”, but the question was, who is he? According to Business Day:
“Is he just the spiritual leader of the Buddhists in Tibet or is he the one who on March 28 1959 established the government of Tibet in exile in the same way Taiwan was established to counter the legality of a single China?” Manuel asked. … “The reason why the Dalai Lama wants to be here is to make a big global political statement about the secession of Tibet from China. He wants to do it on the free soil of SA,” Manuel said.
This is terrible! I am shocked! I am chastised! If only I knew that the Dalai Lama opposed the annexation of his country by the Chinese, and the vicious oppression of Tibetans and their language and religion. If only I knew the Dalai Lama had the bloody cheek to launch a struggle to have his country restored to its people and that he – gasp! – established a government in exile after the annexation of Tibet by China, I would never have supported his visit to South Africa and would never have criticised the government for refusing him a visa.
If only I knew that the Dalai Lama was going to abuse the freedom of speech we have enshrined in our constitution to criticise the illegal annexation of his country by those freedom loving, human rights supporting, Chinese, I would never have mouthed off about the government decision.
After all, who wants to support a man who resists the annexation of his country? If we went down that road, we would have had to support Churchill in the second world war and this would have made Hitler very angry, for God sake! Surely anyone with a moral compass can now see how dangerous it would have been to allow that so called “peaceful” terrorist on our shores. He is for freedom and against tyranny and if we allowed him here it might actually give the natives ideas and we cannot have that, can we?
Really, South Africans just do not understand how precious our freedom of expression is, so they want to abuse it and want to allow a man of the cloth to talk about counter-revolutionary ideas like freedom and self-determination. But as the Minister has now pointed out, freedom must be jealously guarded so we should not share it with anyone. It’s far too dangerous! What next? Before we know it people will be agitating for the independence of Rhodesia and South West Africa (Oops, too late to stop that, I suppose.)
I am so proud of my Minister of Finance. He really knows his right from his wrong. Besides what is wrong with shooting Bambi? I never liked those big innocent eyes and always thought Bambi was a terrorist in Disney Drag. I am sure Trevor, on reflection, will agree that shooting one’s enemies – as the Chinese often do – is the way to go. Let’s start with Zille and Lekota. That will teach them a lesson and will show how freedom loving we really are. You go girl!
