Publication: Weekend Argus Issued: Date: 2005-10-22 Reporter: William Saunderson-Meyer Reporter: Reporter:

Jaundiced Eye - The Villains are Right Behind You, Mr Mbeki

 

Publication 

Weekend Argus
Date 2005-10-22

Reporter

 William Saunderson-Meyer

Web Link

www.capeargus.co.za

 

Last year South Africans celebrated the first decade of democracy with much backslapping and self-congratulation. Just a year later, what appeared to be a robust planting is looking wilted and decidedly vulnerable.

Contrary to dark hints by President Thabo Mbeki, the threat is not external. Last weekend Mbeki told a bemused African Editors' Forum that a foreign power had paid South African non-government organisations to attack the African National Congress ahead of the 2004 elections. The NGOs had been offered money to pursue "civil advocacy, which meant they must challenge the ANC on this and that matter".

Since Mbeki did not substantiate his slur with details of the unnamed foreign power or its surrogate NGOs, it is difficult to take his charges seriously.

Criticism, after all, is not insurrection, although our thin-skinned president appears to equate the two.

So, in the absence of facts, let's speculate that some foreign state, maybe the United States, funded research by, for example, the Treatment Action Campaign regarding the health ministry's provision of anti-retroviral drugs.

Given the government's generally piss-poor, heel-dragging performance in this area, everyone concerned knows that such a report is likely to be critical of the ANC.

However, that does not mean the US or the TAC are undermining democracy. Quite the contrary. By shedding light on a contested arena, these actions improve the public's ability to make decisions, actually strengthening democracy.

If Mbeki wants to look for undemocratic tendencies, he does not have to seek offshore villains. Within the tripartite alliance there is a frighteningly large group of comrades who clearly give not a damn about democracy in their determination to seize power for their faction.

These are party office-bearers who demonstrate outside the High Court, claiming a black man cannot get justice in an untransformed justice system. The black man in question happens to be disgraced former deputy president Jacob Zuma. No longer is the issue whether Zuma was brought to trial as a political expedient. Nor that he is innocent until the due process of law is completed.

It now simply is that if found guilty, it can only be through a political decision by an untransformed white justice system. The implication is that the entire system of courts is manipulated.

They are correct about manipulation. But it is by them, the populist alliance. The intention behind their demos and the all-night vigils is to intimidate the judiciary. This is what should concern Mbeki, especially since these are senior office-bearers in his party.

The dismissive attitude of Zuma supporters towards the judiciary is not surprising, given that the judiciary is riven with strife and confusion. This can be seen in the amazing goings-on around Cape Judge President John Hlophe.

Hlophe - who appears to have serious anger management issues - has been prominent in alleging white racism in the judiciary. Now the boot is on the other foot, with claims that in front of a brace of senior legal men he called a white lawyer a "piece of white shit" and supposedly allocated a case to a white judge because he hoped that the judge would "fuck it up".

The matter was referred to Chief Justice Pius Langa to determine what happened. Langa had barely started trying to unpick this mess when Judge Siraj Desai came forward with a petition in support of Hlophe while disingenuously claiming not to want to comment on the merit of the allegations.

This is bizarre stuff. Judges don't sign petitions to other judges, especially not when this appears to pre-empt the findings of the chief justice. Do they not trust the process, headed by the country's most senior legal man?

Or are they trying to do exactly what Zuma and his cohorts are attempting: to exert influence through intimidatory tactics?

With acknowledgements to William Saunderson-Meyer and the Weekend Argus.