That’s no joke, Jiba

WILLINGNESS to embrace accountability has not been one of the defining traits of South African leaders, either side of the democratic dawn. Latterly, the courts have repeatedly been transformed into a political battleground, most infamously by President Jacob Zuma, who has gone all the way to Constitution Hill in his quest to avoid the consequences of his actions.

It will not have surprised many observers, therefore, that one of four deputy heads of the National Prosecuting Authority, Nomgcobo Jiba, chose not to do the right thing after Pretoria High Court Judge Francis Legodi gave her a judicial savaging on Thursday, in the process of striking her name off the roll of advocates.

Instead, in what has become the routine response of highly placed officials with close links to Zuma when their shortcomings are exposed, Jiba said she would appeal.

Legodi did not equivocate in his judgment. Jiba had lied, he said. She had brought the legal profession and the NPA into disrepute, and she was not “fit and proper” to be an advocate. It was language redolent of the Constitutional Court finding in March that Zuma had failed to uphold the constitution and his oath of office by refusing to comply with the public protector’s instruction that he pay back public money spent improperly on his private compound in Nkandla.

Six months on, and by his own account, Zuma has finally complied. But he remains in office, dragging the country irrevocably down with his fatally holed ship, and either complaining that opposition parties aren’t treating him with respect, or giggling.

Jiba is probably one of the few who get the joke. Everyone else lost their sense of humour a long time ago.