Publication: Cape Argus Issued: Date: 2006-11-22 Reporter: M Orrie

Erring Judges Give Rise to Lack of Confidence

 

Publication 

Cape Argus

Date

2006-11-22

Reporter

 M Orrie

Web Link

www.capeargus.co.za

 

Letters

I heard the learned professor David Unterhalter say on television last week that we must view the Schabir Shaik judgment "on its own merits".

I am happy to do that. However, do we not have a fundamental problem in this regard? Save for the lawyers and, hopefully, the five Bloemfontein judges, none of us has read the record of the trial.

We know for a fact that all five judges erred in at least one fundamental respect - that is the issue pointed out by Judge Hilary Squires relating to the "generally corrupt relationship" ascribed to him.

In how many other respects could they have erred? The fact that the offending remarks were made in a subsidiary judgment is irrelevant. They must have been under the same misunderstanding when they delivered the principal judgment.

What bothers me is this: If they had not been mistaken at all, would they have applied their minds to imposing a different sentence?

In a country in which murder, rape and armed robberies are the order of the day, and prisons are hugely overcrowded with violent gangsters, is the Shaik sentence not excessive?

Without any spin-doctoring by professionals and political functionaries, we need a frank and open debate about this among South Africans. We need to advance formulae for restablishing confidence in our justice system.

M Orrie
Woodstock

With acknowledgements to M Orrie and Cape Argus.