Judicial Independence 07-01-08

 

Judicial independence

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has the greatest respect for former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson and Mr George Bizos, who have expressed fears that some statements made around the trial of Comrade Jacob Zuma, by COSATU and others, amount to an attack on the independence and integrity of the judiciary.

The two judges played a valuable role in the struggle for freedom and particularly in the shaping of our democracy and democratic values. They made an important contribution to the drafting of our constitution and bill of rights, and we fully agree with them that the separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive is an essential cornerstone of our democracy, which we will defend with our lives if necessary. Their views therefore have to be taken seriously.

Their concerns about the independence of the judiciary are however directed to the wrong door. COSATU fully support an independent judiciary and shares the judges’ fears that it is under threat. We believe however that they should not be criticising COSATU but the people who are manipulating the judicial system for their own political ends. COSATU would have liked to hear the judges express similar concern on the following occasions:

1. When the media, on high authority, revealed that the real reason for the suspension of the Director of the National Prosecuting Authority, Vusi Pikoli, was his issuing of a warrant for the search and arrest of Jackie Selebi; COSATU made a call for a judicial inquiry to establish the truth of this, but the two judges did not back this call;

2. When the acting director of the NPA, Mokotedi Mpshe, confirmed that when President Mbeki gave him the job, he instructed him to look into “this matter around Jackie Selebi”, then a week later told etv that “[The President] never mentioned the Selebi name to me”.

3. When Mpshe was running up and down to judges to cancel the warrant, presumably on the instructions of the executive;

4. When the Special Browse Mole Report came to light, indicating that some people in the NPA were hell-bent on throwing mud at the ANC President, Jacob Zuma, which the government at the time denied, and yet which now form part of the charges against him;

5. When the NPA spent seven years investigating Jacob Zuma before charging him - a classic case of justice delayed being justice denied;

6. When the NPA and the media launched a media trial of Jacob Zuma, and effectively found him guilty in the court of public opinion, without any objection from the two judges.

The two judges’ deafening silence on all these abuses of the legal process, and of an individual’s human rights, all of which posed a real threat to the independence of the judiciary, has undermined their credibility now that they are coming up with other, non-existent threats to judicial independence, and they have therefore lost the right to claim to be neutral on the issue.