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
JSC, Minister doth protest too much
When Justice Minister Jeff Radebe (that guy who masterminded the scandalous decision of the JSC not to investigate the complaints of gross misconduct against John Hlophe because it feared that a real investigation would have to lead to the impeachment of Hlophe) gave a speech yesterday at the farewell for five justices of the Constitutional Court, he sounded rather defensive.
Instead of mouthing warmhearted platitudes about our highest court – as one would have expected of a good politician – he spoke for fifteen minutes in defense of the JSC. He said the true test of the JSC’s character was that it was “fair, honest, and focused on providing the president with a cadre of justices from which he will make his decision”. The test was “not the accolades that arise as a consequence of whom they did not short-list as much as who they did”.
Of course the JSC did not embarrass itself with the compilation of the Constitutional Court short-list, but rather when it made an inexplicable decision to let John Hlophe off the hook and condoned lying by a judge.
No matter what the Minister says now, nothing can erase the fact that the JSC decided that it had nothing to do with it that a judge of one of our highest courts had lied under oath (and maybe that same judge had lied several other times to the media or under oath – that judge being John Hlophe, seemingly a pathological liar.
The fact that the Minister is now so defensive about the JSC suggests that he does have some shame and that he feels a bit embarrassed about the indefensible decision of the JSC. Maybe this is a good thing as it suggests the Minister of Justice understands what is right and wrong, what is legally and constitutionally required and what cannot be justified – he just chose for expedient reasons not to do what is right and not to obey the Constitution.
That is marginally better than having a Minister of Justice who acts unlawfully and does not even recognise that his actions are scandalous. Maybe there is something to work with there. Maybe he can still be convinced that following the Constitution and the law is not optional and that condoning the lying ways of a judge in the long term will hurt us all.
If he does not and if he thinks it is perfectly fine that a leader of our judiciary continues on the bench despite the fact that he is a pathological liar and a skel, well, then god help us all.
