Backers of President Jacob Zuma have turned on the heat on the judiciary and its judgments, saying it was heavily influenced by the wealthy at the expense of poor.
Yesterday, Defence and Military Veterans Deputy Minister and chairperson of the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), Kebby Maphatsoe, said the constitution needed to be amended to “favour our people”.
“We are also saying the judges must do their work and interpret the constitution correctly. They must also respect the separation of powers. There is a tendency now that some of the judges are beginning to not separate the institutions.”
Maphatsoe was briefing the media on the outcomes of the MKMVA’s extended national executive committee meeting in Joburg at the weekend.
Social Development Minister and ANC Women’s League president, Bathabile Dlamini, went for the jugular when she addressed the league’s Bojanala regional elective conference at Madibeng in North West on Saturday.
She heavily criticised her ANC comrades who were “conniving with the boers” and were also briefing the judiciary “ukuba ikhiphe amajudgments aphambeneyo (Loosely translated: “they are also briefing the judiciary to pass crazy judgments.”)
“The judiciary is supposed to protect the poor. But it’s not protecting the poor, it’s protecting the rich because our government is diluted.”
She said the country was on the verge of collapse. “Our democracy was built on shaky ground, and what comes out of shaky ground? It collapses, and that’s what we see now. Instead of challenging those things, we are fighting among ourselves.
“Our country is dysfunctional, we have weak families. Drugs are spreading like wildfire violence against women is high (as if) to prove (a point) that this is a patriarchal country,” she said.
Dlamini called for radical change of the country’s institutions.
“Our institutions have not changed since the dawn of democracy. The judiciary, the Parliament, we never changed them in the extreme We just put in new people. We even follow old procedures to formulate the legislation. We are afraid to take decisions to ensure a radical turnaround in the country,” said Dlamini.
The judiciary has passed a number of damning rulings against Zuma and his administration, from the Nkandla security upgrades at his private home in KwaZulu-Natal, to the recent nuclear deal with Russia, and were now forcing him to explain reasons for his recent cabinet reshuffle.
Dlamini said they would use the radical economic transformation agenda as a vehicle to return the land.
She bemoaned the billions of rand “wasted” by the ANC government to buy “land that was stolen”.
The failed willing buyer/willing seller concept was ill advised, she said.
“What kind of thing is that? The property clause in the constitution is protecting white people’s (interests).”
But ANC national executive committee member Joel Netshitenzhe has reportedly spoken against fellow party leaders who have called for the judiciary to be reined in.
Netshitenzhe, who addressed the ANC Northern Cape elective conference in Colesberg last week, was quoted as saying such leaders were talking from ill-informed positions.
He reportedly suggested that their actions and utterances were irrational and appeared to be born out of irritation.
“The approach to reconciliation was a deliberate revolutionary act on the part of the ANC because of the balance of forces.
“These days when we are irritated by what the Constitutional Court says we complain that the disbursal of power (to various arms of state) was a compromise and it must go.
“Those who argue so are wrong. The disbursal of power was a deliberate act on our part. Nelson Mandela did not sell out,” he was quoted as saying.
@luyolomkentane