I do not recall president Jacob Zuma standing before a court of law being on trial for the findings of the Nkandla report of the Public Protectors. No court of law has convicted or acquited him. For this reason, I do not understand why a judge believes that it is correct for the Democratic Alliance to call him a thief in an SMS used for campaigning. A thief is a person who has committed a crime of stealing, and a crime is determined, at least in a constitutional democracy, by a court of law following correct legal processes. The office of the Public Protector is an important institution in our democracy, but it is NOT a court of law. Therefore, we cannot take its findings and use them to give verdicts on matters that havent stood before trial. The problem with South Afrikans is that we dislike president Zuma so much that anything that is against him gets our nod, whether or not it has any legitimacy. We dont apply our minds where hes concerned. If unfairness is aimed at him, its okay. For example, when the YCL released a statement a few years ago claiming that president Thabo Mbeki must stand trial for the deaths he allegedly caused through his so-called AIDS denialism, we were appalled at the sheer audacity of Buti Manamela and his administrations to insinuate that TM is a mass murderer. We were livid and called the YCL all sorts of names. But today, a much worse travesty has occured: an institution that is supposed to protect our constitution (a constitution that says before the eyes of the LAW, all are innocent until proven guilty) decides to undermine such an important principle, but because this travesty targets someone we dislike, we celebrate. What we fail to comprehend is that we are setting a precedence where our leaders are put on trial by public courts, and where guardians of our constitution are dodgy. One day well have a president we like, and some right-wing opposition party will send SMSes saying all sorts of things about him. We will want to make noise then, speak about how our judiciary is untransformed, when today we are clapping hands for a nonsensical judgment indicative of untransformation. If history has taught me one thing, it is that it is to the sounds of cheers that democracy dies...
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 06:18:05 +0000
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