Johannesburg – The country’s top judges on Wednesday warned against “repeated and unfounded” criticism of the judiciary from government and called for a meeting between Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and President Jacob Zuma.
“The Heads of Court and senior judges of all divisions have requested the Chief Justice, as head of the judiciary to meet with the head of state to point out and discuss the dangers of the repeated and unfounded criticism of the judiciary. Criticism of that kind has the potential to delegitimise the courts. Courts serve a public purpose and should not be undermined,” they said in a statement after a meeting at OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg.
Addressing journalists after the meeting. Mogoeng said: “We hope to find a way for issues to be raised at that level…. Raise issues with the right powers and let them deal with it.”
Mogoeng said the judiciary was at a point of “self-introspection”, not one of crisis. He added that he could not predict the response from Zuma but was confident that the president would reflect on the situation.
“Many people have criticised the judiciary and we just want to assure the nation that the judiciary remains committed to carrying out its constitutional mandate and certain issues are dealt with, not to attack anyone. We reiterate principle, and we will not go blow-by-blow with any personality,” he said.
“One of the most important things we have done was to reiterate the critical role the law plays.”
When asked what would happen the next time the government failed to obey a court order, Mogoeng added that concerns needed to be coupled with the reality that there were only a few court orders that had not been respected by the government, but that it would be dealt with it were it to happen again.
“We are aware of one eyebrow-raising, apparent disregard of a court order and we believe this meeting is strong enough to discourage anyone of doing it again but if it had to happen, we will cross that bridge when we get there because we have confidence that they will make sure such doesn’t happen again.”
Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke added that it was important that the purpose of Wednesday’s meeting be clear for all.
“We want to talk to the public and reassure them that none of the judges has gone out of oath and it is important to reassure everyone that we take our jobs seriously and will continue to be impartial… We will do our work as we have to.”
The meeting of the country’s top judges followed the disregarding of a court order recently relating to the presence of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in South Africa for the African Union (AU) summit that took place in Sandton last month.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant of arrest for Bashir for alleged genocide and other crimes against the people of Sudan’s western Darfur province and as a signatory, South Africa was obliged to arrest him.
However, Bashir was allowed to leave the country in spite of an interim order by Pretoria High Court Judge Hans Fabricius who had ordered that Bashir remain in the country pending a final ruling on the ICC arrest warrant
This led to a scathing rebuke of government by North Gauteng High Court Judge President Dunstan Mlambo and a full bench of the court which demanded an explanation as to why the Sudanese president had been allowed to leave, going so far as recommending that the National Director of Public Prosecutions consider initiating criminal charges over the incident.
The furore over the Bashir incident saw criticism directed at the judiciary with ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe reportedly accusing the judiciary of bias against the ruling party.
According to media reports, Mantashe singled out the North Gauteng High Court and the Western Cape High Court, accusing their judges of having a negative attitude towards government.
ANA