Is the judiciary independent?
WHEN the ANC went rogue at Polokwane in 2007 in deciding to disband the Scorpions, it spelt the death of the hallmark of one the cornerstones of our democratic social order, an independent judiciary.
Its subsequent replacement, the Hawks, a misnomer if ever there was one, became a pliant piece of putty, taking its instructions from the president through the Minister of Police.
To make matters worse, complicit in all of this were what we thought were allies of the liberation struggle, the ANC Youth League, whose Julius Malema declared, “I will kill for Zuma”; the SACP, whose Blade Nzimande was so blinded at the access to power that he saw in aligning himself to Zuma, that he left his principles behind; and Cosatu’s Zwelenzima Vavi, who mistakenly thought that Jacob Zuma was going to be key to a new dawn of workers’ rights.
All of them set South Africa on a path to ruin when they led their respective constituencies to sweep Jacob Zuma to power, and were by and large tacit bystanders as he systematically tore down the vestiges of our democracy, the prosecuting authority, the intelligence services, state-owned enterprises, and even dismantled the highly professional SA Revenue Service administration.
In each of these instances he abused his power, and replaced dedicated and competent office-bearers with puppets to serve his personal agenda of corruption and looting of state coffers.
And then Nasrec 2017, the ANC elective conference, happened and the balance of power shifted dramatically towards newly-elected ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa.
Now suddenly the Hawks have rediscovered their mandate and are investigating the disgraceful Estina dairy farm thievery, and the Asset Forfeiture Unit are closing in on Gupta-related businesses.
But this is my question: If the judiciary is truly independent, and prosecutes without fear or favour, why are they now, barely a month after Nasrec 2017, behaving totally differently compared to the past 10 years?
If the answer is that there’s a new political head in place, then I wish to submit that this is palpably wrong, because it still implies that the judiciary is led and takes instructions from political leadership, and this means that it can never be truly independent and prosecute without fear or favour.
So it can never be about who rules, for tomorrow another Jacob Zuma clone can worm his way into power, and we are back to square one. It’s about cherishing the cornerstone of our democracy, the separation of powers in the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive.
Thus we as civil society must remain vigilant to ensure that the government remain accountable to the people. Anything less will set us back on a course to a Jacob Zuma nightmare.