Zondo ‘must stop playing fortune teller’
POLITICAL analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said judges should stick to the facts and stop playing the role of fortune tellers.
Seepe said this in reaction to convicted fraudster and ANC NEC member Tony Yengeni lodging a complaint against Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
Yengeni wrote to the Judicial Commission Service in his personal capacity as an ANC member on Friday, lambasting the chief justice for political meddling in his fourth part of the Zondo Commission report.
“I lodge this complaint against Zondo in my personal capacity as a concerned member of the NEC of the ANC, and as a concerned citizen of South Africa. I submit that the conduct of the chief justice is covered by both grounds. It is testimony to the political nature of Zondo’s conduct that a politician should be moved to lodge a complaint against the chief justice. I do not do so lightly,” he said.
Yengeni claimed that Justice Zondo was in breach of the Code of Judicial Conduct for stating in the report that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as ANC president at the party’s 54th national elective conference in December 2017 in Nasrec had saved the party from more damage.
In the fourth part of the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, Justice Zondo, who chaired the commission, said more damage could have been done if Ramaphosa was not elected. Yengeni said that the remarks amounted to political meddling and that the conclusion by Justice Zondo was troubling in many respects.
Seepe said Justice Zondo was out of order. “The notion of discharging his responsibility without prejudice, fear or favour seems to have left his judicial consciousness,” Seepe said.
Seepe said this was becoming a defining characteristic which should be of concern to all. “It started with his failure to recuse himself when he engaged in a dispute of facts with Zuma.
“The second instance is when he disregarded the fact that Zuma had lodged a review application regarding his decision to recuse himself.
“The third, involved rushing to his friends in the Constitutional Court asking them to sentence Zuma to jail without a trial. The fourth, is his decision to launch a tirade against Minister Sisulu.
He further said: “Judges should stick to the facts and stop playing the role of fortune tellers. His predictions have been proven wrong. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency has proven to be a disaster at all levels. The only success has been in purging his political opponents in the ANC. In Zondo, it would seem that Ramaphosa has found a loyal disciple.”
The Office of the Chief Justice has not commented.