The ANC Youth League is not known for turning its back on a good fight. From the 1950s, when it was formed, through to the days of Peter Mokaba, it has been renowned for willingly taking up the cudgels for a cause it deemed legitimate.

The current crop of the league's leadership, led by Fikile Mbalula, is therefore no different from its predecessors.

The league is currently waging a bitter campaign - spearheaded by self-styled young Turks Mbalula and Buti Manamela, leader of the Young Communist League - against Judge Hilary Squires, after he convicted Schabir Shaik of corruption and fraud last week.

Judge Squires found that there was a corrupt relationship between Shaik and Deputy President Jacob Zuma, prompting the two firebrands to launch personal attacks on the judge.

They called him "no Messiah", a racist, and accused him of being bitter. Mbalula said: "It cannot be that (when) a judge has actually arrived at a conclusion, all of a sudden the judge is beyond God. There is an error in the judgment that he has made, it amounts to a miscarriage of justice. The judge cannot be described as a person who has acted in fairness."

His comrade in arms, Manamela, had this choice statement to make: "Did we expect anything else from the judge? He is a cynical, mad person who is still raw because his apartheid existence came to an end. We will never judge our leaders according to the standards of an apartheid judge."

Conveniently omitting to mention the fact that the "mad judge" was brought from retirement by Natal judge president Vuka Tshabalala to preside over the case, the two weaken their case by focusing on the race of the judicial officer, rather than on any shortcomings, if any, in his findings.

Sad will be the day when judges will be constrained to come to a verdict, fearful that their judgments will be called into question on account of their racial origins. Justice should be blind and fair, irrespective of who is on trial.

Meanwhile, Mbalula and Manamela should consider themselves lucky if they do not face contempt of court charges.

With acknowledgement to The Star.