President Mbeki had no choice but to dismiss Zuma. Right? 

Wrong! The man in the street can think of several alternatives to deal with a man with struggle credentials second to none, and an affable personality better than any other in government.

As deputy president he deserved to be treated with dignity befitting his status, not fired in unseemly haste like a casual worker.

Zuma could have been suspended until a judicial commission investigated his involvement in the Shaik affair.

Mbeki could have called an imbizo of alliance partners to decide the future of Zuma, or he could have asked the National Prosecuting Authority to expedite the indictment of Zuma, etc.

No citizen, least of all the deputy president of the land, is expendable for considerations of expediency. The people have not put in place a government to ponder to every whim of an opportunistic opposition, indulge an insatiable media, or placate world opinion?

A dangerous precedent has been set. The fundamentals of human rights, viz, presumption of innocence and due process, have been violated in contradiction of principles enshrined in the constitution - by a president who eloquently espouses the centrality of our democratic constitution.

This episode is reminiscent of the jackboot actions of apartheid apparatchiks in their rampant days. Public opinion and the press being a fickle as they are, shades of this unseemly deviation will undoubtedly return to haunt the ANC.

Anyone who believes the assignment of Justice Hefer and Justice Squires to the cases involving Zuma were fortuitous acts of judicial independence must be disingenuous or a fool.

Both judges served the apartheid regime. To assign such judges to preside over cases which former freedom fighters are directly involved is nothing but an inversion of Nuremberg.

Despite efforts at conciliation by black leaders, nobody honestly believes that all whites are reconciled to the lowering of their status to the level of blacks with consequent loss of privileges. It is therefore incredible that judges that seed in racially skewed judiciaries, dispensing unequal laws upon a hapless people, are assigned to cases involving former black activists.

That Judge Squires was called from retirement for this purpose gives some credence to the belief that the choice of judge was not without significance.

A thought for cogitation : When enemies begin to praise you in exuberance, it is the surest sign you have fallen in a hole of their making, from which you will not emerge smelling of cologne.

With acknowledgements to Bhan Mahabir and The Star.