Accountability the issue
THE North Gauteng High Court ruling that ordered former President Jacob Zuma to hand over records explaining his reasons for reshuffling the cabinet in March 2017 – axing the finance minister and his deputy – was an important one reached by our judiciary in terms of its function as a check and balance for the other pillars of our democracy.
One of the reasons for suspicions about Zuma’s motives for sacking the two was that both seemed to be refusing to be captured by Zuma’s friends, the Gupta family, and were reluctant to sign off on the nuclear deal with Russia’s Vladimir Putin (and for very good reason, as such a deal would completely decimate our economy and reserves).
In his announcement about the reshuffle, the then president mentioned or implied that his decision was based on a (dodgy) intelligence report. Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas were called home from an international investor roadshow. It would seem the then president relied on this report to make his decision to reshuffle his cabinet, despite his having executive prerogative and despite his actions leading to the suspicion that he was exercising his executive powers for personal reasons, not in the best interests of the country.
This judgment has an important message – it warns members of the executive that when they take decisions, they must be within the ambit of the law, reasonable enough to justify and lastly, that they must apply their own minds.
In short, this is about holding the executive to account, preventing decisions that seem irrational, and seeing to it that those in executive positions apply their minds about what they do.
This is important despite the defence’s contention that it would set a bad precedent for the powers of the president with regard to decisions and the prerogative of the president. While we must acknowledge the separation of powers, we must recognise the vital role the judiciary has to play in acting as a check and balance of the executive. — Thando Noel Witbooi, via e-mail