President Jacob Zuma has warned the country’s judges to stay on their side of the fence – to leave politics to the politicians and governance to the government.
In a speech prepared for the Access to Justice Conference in Pretoria yesterday, Zuma said while his administration was committed to the principle of the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, the executive, “as elected officials, has the sole discretion to decide policies for the government”.
“Once government has decided on the appropriate policies, the judiciary cannot, when striking down legislation or parts thereof on the basis of illegality, raise that as an opportunity to change the policies as determined by the executive area of government,” he warned.
“In as much as we seek to respect the powers and role conferred by our constitution on the legislature and the judiciary, we expect the same from these very important institutions of our democratic dispensation. The executive must be allowed to conduct its administration and policy-making work as freely as it possibly can.”
Some analysts have interpreted the president’s comments as a thinly veiled reference to the Constitutional Court’s ruling earlier this year in which a narrow majority of justices found the legislation that killed off the Scorpions unit – and established the Hawks – to be unconstitutional. The judges argued that the Hawks are not sufficiently protected from executive meddling – as the Scorpions were – and instructed Parliament to bring the law in line with their judgment within 18 months.
Zuma suggested the powers of the courts “cannot be superior to the powers resulting from the political and consequently administrative mandate resulting from popular democratic elections”.
“Political disputes resulting from the exercise of powers that have been constitutionally conferred on the ruling party through a popular vote must not be subverted, simply because those who disagree with the ruling party politically, and who cannot win the popular vote during elections, feel other arms of the State are avenues to help them go-govern the country … Political battles must be fought on political platforms,” he said.
“As much as we seek to respect the powers and role conferred by our constitution on the legislature and the judiciary, we expect the same from these very important institutions or our democratic. - Deon de Lange