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
Mosiuoa Lekota, champion for gay rights?
According to ANC sources Lekota also made a decisive intervention at the ANC caucus meeting last Monday during the debate about the Bill, telling those members of the caucus who oppose same sex marriage that they had no choice but to support the Civil Union Bill. Same-sex marriage was a matter of discrimination, not of conscience, and the ANC had always been against discrimination of any kind.
The reason for this support stems from Lekota’s days as a Delmas treason trialist in the late eighties. One of his co-accused was Simon Nkoli who came out of the closet to his comarades during the trial. This action and the debates it inspired (they had lots of time to debate in those Delmas prison cells) prompted UDF leaders such as co-defendants Popo Molefe and Patrick Lekota to recognize homophobia as a form of oppression. Nkoli tragically died of Aids related ilness in 1998.
It just goes to show how people can change their view once confronted with a real life homosexual/black person/American. I will drink a glass of wine in honour of Nkoli tonight. Without him, and without people like Lekota who saw the link between various kinds of oppression, the Civil Union Bill would not have been possible. Neither would our progressive Constitution.
