Western Cape Premier Helen Zille complained in her weekly online letter on Friday that the African National Congress (ANC) is taking party control over the independent institutions of state.
The Democratic Alliance leader said she met President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday. ”He was as charming as ever,” she said, but added: ”My great fear is that under the cloak of Zuma’s charm, his cadres are subverting the South African Constitution for political ends and trying to corrupt the independent institutions of the state, especially the judiciary, into tools of the ANC.”
She reiterated her complaint that Zuma’s lawyer had said the president is above the law, despite Zuma having denied that he believes so.
”In the six months since April, we have had ANC party control taking over the independent institutions of the state,” she said. ”The National Prosecuting Authority put loyalty to its political master before the rule of law when it dropped charges against Jacob Zuma. The minister of justice has turned the JSC into a tool of the ANC, and the JSC has dutifully exonerated [Western Cape Judge President John] Hlophe because he is a champion of the Zuma faction. And now Michael Hulley has declared in court that Jacob Zuma is above the law.
”If, for some reason, Jacob Zuma fell out of favour with the most powerful ANC faction, as Thabo Mbeki did before him, these state institutions could quickly be used against him. Since the ANC cadres are always keenly aware of power play within the party, if the play turned against Zuma, the NPA could quickly lay criminal charges against him, a suitable judge could try to convict him, and he could be thrown out of the Presidency and perhaps into gaol.
”We are sinking into a kind of gangsterism when the decisions of the state justice system depend not on the law but on party intrigue. That is why the faction fights inside the ANC are so vicious.”
Zille said that there has been encouraging resistance to these abuses of justice from across South Africa. Newspapers and commentators of all views have condemned them. But there has also been an outcry that anyone who challenges these judicial abuses is a racist.
”The tired refrain is this,” she said, ”’The racists pretend they are defending the rule of the law when actually they just hate all black judges’.
”Such drivel ignores the fact that Chief Justice Pius Langa, who brought the complaint against Hlophe is black, and so are Justices Bess Nkabinde and Chris Jafta, whom it is alleged Hlophe tried to influence, and so are 90% of the judges appointed since 1994.”
Zille concluded: ”We believe that the independence of the judiciary should be sacrosanct. The assault on this independence by the ANC is of the gravest concern. It is masked by the charm of its leader, which makes the threat even greater.” — I-Net Bridge