Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe
Picture: Trevor Samson

JUSTICE and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe on Wednesday stonewalled questions about the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) refusal to obey an order of the Supreme Court of Appeal to hand over material that informed the dropping of fraud and corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma.

In a news conference ahead of his budget vote debate, Mr Radebe faced a barrage of questions about the documents that informed then acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe’s decision to drop the charges in 2009.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) won a ruling in the Supreme Court of Appeal that the documentation be provided to it and ordered the NPA to comply within 14 days in March 2012. The DA has now gone to the high court in an attempt to get the NPA to comply *1.

Mr Radebe said that because the matter was before the high court, he could not comment.

Independence of the judiciary

Commenting on what he would say in his budget vote, Mr Radebe said the review of the "impact of the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal, which I announced when I presented the budget of the department in 2012, is on course. It is anticipated that a preliminary report of the assessment will be completed by March 31 2014."

He said the government had introduced radical reforms aimed at strengthening the judiciary as a separate branch of the state.

"The Constitution 17th Amendment Act, which the president assented into law in February this year, has broken new ground in our judicial landscape," Mr Radebe said. "These amendments, first, confer on the chief justice the power to lead and guide the judiciary, as the first among equals; and second, they extend the powers of the Constitutional Court to hear any matter that raises an arguable point of law of general public interest."

He said the independence and impartiality of the judiciary had been bolstered by the establishment of the Office of the Chief Justice as a separate institution from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.

The Superior Courts Bill, which was promoted together with the Constitution 17th Amendment Act, accords the Office of the Chief Justice its separate identity and responsibility.

"We are pleased that Parliament has passed this bill, which will soon come into operation as soon as it is signed into law by the president," the minister said.

With acknowledgement to Wyndham Hartley and Business Day.

*1      The DA has tried to go to the High Court in an attempt to get the NPA to comply .

A year down the track it even managed to get a court date of 30 April 2013.

That simply went by, nothing happened that day in the North Gauteng High Court.

There might be another bite at the cherry around 25 July 2013.

So, the DA win?

The NPA just goes to the SCA and then the CC. That's another three years.

Just like with Glynnis Breytenbach.

It knows it cannot win against Ms Breytenbach; the powers that be just want her out of work for at least three years, preferably forever.

There is someone that they do not want prosecuted.

Actually, there's more than one of those.

Just like it knows it cannot win against the DA.

Just like with the Seriti Commission there'll be jurisprudential kicks for touch :
  • for an initial two years;
  • until after the April 2014 general election;
  • until after the ANC elective conference in Durban in 2017;
  • until after Zuma's second term ends in 2019; and
  • until the end of the earth as we individuals know it (we kick the bucket; or
  • until, like Bismarck, we forget about the entire Schleswig-Zumstein question.

The Minister of Justice, the Chief Justice and the National Director of Injustice are all the president's men (and women).