Little parties like IFP shout the loudest

IT WAS interesting watching the Judicial Service Committee interviewing aspiring candidates to fill positions on our highest court, the Constitutional Court.

Firstly, some of those sitting on that committee, especially the IFP member, have made their presence a mockery since this party is one of the little ones in Parliament shouting the loudest for the return of the death penalty.

Secondly, as one of our country's most vociferous anti-death penalty activists, one is reminded of the unanimous landmark decision of this court's 11 judges to abolish this scourge once and for all to history's scrapheap where it belongs and should have been dumped, decades, if not centuries ago.

It is with pride that those 11 names can be repeated, etched in our memories, to remind us that we can never go back to our brutal past.

They were: Justices Arthur Chaskalson (Chief), Laurie Ackermann, John Didcott, Sydney Kentridge, Johan Kriegler, Pius Langa, Tholakele Madala, Ismail Mahomed, Yvonne Mokgoro, Catherine O'Regan and Albie Sachs.

When the most powerful nation on earth, the US, was confronted with this milestone question whether to reintroduce or abolish the death penalty in 1976 after a decade-long lull, it faltered and voted with a 6-5 split-vote to allow its 50 states to decide for themselves.

Today one can see where this dangerous decision took them, not only the laughing-stock of the world, but also the most violent.

If they had taken the ethical and moral decision to abolish it, the entire world would have been rid of it, and the violence that goes with it, simply because the US is in the unique position to force all others to follow suit.

Did we hear this topic being raised when candidates were grilled?

If each one of our citizens, from the top to the bottom, are not obliged to stand up and be counted regarding this vexatious question, the right to life, then South Africa will equally become the next laughing-stock of the world.

If just one of those judges should express support for it, whether from the Bench or in private, we will be doomed for shouting, "Wolf! Wolf!", as far as this important issue is concerned.

We are reminded of the ridiculous statements certain judges made from the Bench soon after 1994 that if the death penalty was still in force they would not have hesitated to send folks to the gallows all over again.

The 4 110 people, including the 131 political activists, who paid the ultimate price since 1910 were all sentenced by white male judges, in the 1980s supplemented by even female ones.

Shouldn't all of those judges who ably served their brutal apartheid and colonial masters be branded "hanging judges"?

However, Judge John Didcott, always searching for extenuating circumstances, succeeded in leaving a clean slate as his legacy.

Every time we commemorate the sacrifices of those 131 martyrs, especially Solomon Mahlangu, Andrew Zondo and the others, we should be reminded who those judges were who condemned them without blinking an eye.

That was their stained legacy with which their folks will forever be saddled with for the rest of their lives, something to be ashamed of. KOERT MEYER | WELGELEGEN