I have come to the inescapable conclusion that our president in waiting, Jacob Zuma, has no appreciation of how the law works. This is borne out of the many utterances he has made about constitutionalism, the fight against crime and conspiracies abound.
He has recently stated that the Constitutional Court judges think that they are god and they need to be engaged. He has said that they cannot have as much power as they have now. He has also said that the power of the Judicial Services Commission needs to be checked. Reading this I got very scared that our president in waiting can be so blase' about things that goes to the heart of our constitution. He has said that he is unlikely to appoint Dikgang Moseneke, the current Deputy Chief Justice, because he has said unsavoury things about the ANC. Moseneke is reported to have said at a private party that he does not serve the ANC but serves the country. What is unsavoury about that I don't know.
Poor old Jessie Duarte has had to come to the President in waiting's rescue to explain what he meant by these statements (as has become the norm). It has become a full time job for the ANC to manage Jacob Zuma and his embarrassing utterances. Carl Niehaus was good at it. This started with that infamous and embarrassing interview with some British journalist who asked whether Jacob Zuma was a crook and he gave out that laugh that Thabo Mbeki apparently dislikes and said that he will have to look the word up in the dictionary.
He has said that the Constitutional Court outlawed capital punishment and this needs to be revisited while it was the ANC that vehemently pushed for the removal of the death penalty. He has said that he saw nothing wrong with his involvement with Shabir Shaik. He has said that the laws of the country are soft on crime and they need to bite. How soft they are he could not say.
Clearly our president in waiting needs to be managed tightly and he should never be allowed to give of the cuff interviews, he can be rather embarrassing by his lack of appreciation of things legal. He must always read from prepared notes and questions from journalists should be vetted first.
Unless all his embarrassing utterances are what the ANC is about. If that is the case be very, very afraid because Jacob Zuma would take out his whip ala' Jesus and whip all those who have been bad to the ANC church.
Your last paragraph sums it up perfectly. I'm hoping that it is just a problem with Zuma not expressing himself well, being misinterpreted, and/or just speaking without much thought or knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI'm really hoping its not option 2 - that his statements actually reflect what the ANC about. That is a scary possibility.
I didn't have too much of a problem with him saying that the constitutional court judges are not God etc. etc. But coupling that with him saying that he would be unlikely to appoint Dikgang Moseneke... for private comments at a private party (that were not even anti-ANC! I mean, good grief! But even if they were anti-ANC, they were his private view expressed in a private capacity.)
That, to me, was quite sinister.
Just one point: In the context of law and all things legal, the constitutional court is indeed god.
ReplyDeleteYou hit in on the head MoAfrika, smack on the head!!
ReplyDelete@Laura, do we really want a state president who always has to be second guessed. Everytime Jacob Zuma opens his mouth to express his true thought there always has to be an explanation on what he really meant. i suppose in the context of the ANC that is acceptable but just imagine when he has to interact with other leaders and international journalists.