Daily Dispatch

Judges should not fear for lives

THIS week, as the Constitutional Court listened to argument over whether the vote of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma could be by secret ballot, the Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng made, almost as an aside, a highly alarming comment.

There were more serious dangers for judges than being removed from their positions “believe you me”, he said.

Even more worrying is that this came on the back of a similar but more emphatic comment from Mogoeng a few weeks ago when he opened the Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of Africa in Cape Town.

Governments could pose a threat to the judiciary, and judges should even be willing to die for the ideal of an independent judiciary and rule of law, he told judges from across Africa.

When a judge of the weight and stature of Mogoeng Mogoeng starts making such chillingly grave remarks out loud in public, South Africans need to sit up and take serious note.

Such words by such a chief justice are not being said lightly. They are a distress flare sent up on behalf of a judiciary that is increasingly under siege.

For evidence one need look no further than Monday’s march in KwaZulu-Natal by the ANC which has now positioned itself in open opposition to a respected independent judiciary.

Apart from the case unfolding in the Constitutional Court another reason cited by the KZN ANC for their “disgust” with the judiciary was the order last week by the North Gauteng High Court Judge Bashier Vally that Zuma give reasons for sacking the former finance minister.

Provincial ANC chairman Sihle Zikalala said the party was “saddened and disgusted” by Vally’s determination that presidential prerogative in the context of a constitutional democracy be exercised in the same spirit. He demanded that the ruling be reversed. Zikalala would appear to believe that Zuma should be elevated beyond all accountability and be allowed to rule like a king of old.

But whether or not Zikalala actually believes this is actually irrelevant. He is what communists would call a “useful idiot”, a lackey for a ruthless and avaricious leader – and in this case the leader is continually at odds with the judiciary because of his disregard for almost every law and value laid out in a constitution designed to protect the nation.

The judiciary that Zikalala is “disgusted” by is the one that rose to the defence of the poor when Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini brazenly tried to hijack the social grants disbursement system.

It is the one that stopped the government from bypassing procurement requirements in order to fast-track Zuma’s nuclear agenda.

In fact, had the Western Cape High Court not insisted a few weeks ago that proper procurement processes be followed, this country would now in all likelihood be locked into an unbreakable deal with Russia for the roll out of too many nuclear power stations at a suicidally high price.

This same judiciary has also resisted attempts by the government to terminate South Africa’s membership of the International Criminal Court, as well as it did the government’s embrace of the genocidal leader of Sudan, Omar al Bashir.

And then of course this same judiciary reined in the president’s personal bonus at Nkandla.

There is no question of who is fulfilling their job here – it is South African judges who apparently now fear for their lives when what they deserve is much gratitude and all support.