Daily Dispatch

Zuma may be a liar but SA still a million times better: Yacoob

- By NALEDI SHANGE

ANTI-APARTHEID activist and retired Constituti­onal Court judge Zak Yacoob is concerned about the state of the country but says he still has hope it will be mended because of the enlighteni­ng Constituti­on.

Reflecting on his judicial work, which began in the apartheid era‚ Yacoob said: “Although I have said publicly that [President] Jacob Zuma and the majority of people that influence the ANC are liars and rogues and though I have said that Jacob Zuma is a racist‚ my view still is that compared to 1994‚ we still have today an anti-apartheid society which is still a million times better than what it was before.

“My criticism of today’s government, which remains completely strong‚ must not be equated with my criticism of the Constituti­on. The Constituti­on is wonderful. My criticism of the government is that they are acting anti the Constituti­on.”

The outspoken judge‚ who is blind‚ is no stranger to going against the tide.

During his telephonic interview with TimesLIVE‚ he said the one burning issue that he believed the Constituti­onal Court needed to take a look at was the decriminal­isation of sex work.

“I am not saying sex work is a good thing nor am I saying that it is a bad thing. The morality of it does not interest me‚” Yacoob told The Times during a telephonic discussion with the publicatio­n on December 10‚ which marked the 21st anniversar­y of the Constituti­on.

“I think making sex work criminal is wrong for the reason that it is against the right to make their own decision. [Prostitute­s] are the most vulnerable people as far as HIV is concerned. We cannot solve the HIV crisis without decriminal­ising sex work so I think that is an issue which I would love the court to reconsider in the Constituti­on era of today.”

Having lost his eyesight at the age of 16 months due to meningitis‚ Yacoob is also passionate about the advancemen­t of and protection of the rights of those living with disabiliti­es. Yacoob believes one of the greatest disabiliti­es in the country is poverty.

“There are millions of people with disabiliti­es who are in the rural areas who have no food‚ no water‚ no clothes and they are in an absolute mess and they have no money or programmes to deal with them. I think that they are much worse off than a person like me who has a disability but who has everything‚” said Yacoob.

“So in a way‚ in our country‚ poverty is a very serious disability in its own right and if you then combine a person being born in a rural area who cannot walk or see or hear or who has mental troubles and they have no food‚ no water‚ no clothes‚ that is a death trap second to none‚” he added.

Yacoob‚ who retired in 2013 and continues to give lectures about the Constituti­on‚ believes that education is the only key to eradicatin­g the problem. “That is why I am trying to educate as many people before I die‚” he said. — DDC

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ZAK YACOOB

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