Minister Lindiwe Sisulu. (Photo: Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe has said the party’s national executive committee (NEC) member, Lindiwe Sisulu, saying she had not brought the party into disrepute because she was expressing her personal views.
In an opinion piece that appeared on IOL, titled “Lindiwe Sisulu: Hi Mzansi, have we seen justice?”, Sisulu launched what has been regarded as a direct attack on the judiciary and the Constitution.
“Lindiwe must answer for her views. We should not take her views as that of the ANC. There are many people who belong to the ANC, that does not mean that their view is that of the ANC. The ANC has no issue with what she said. It is her personal view,” Mantashe said.
But the head of presidency in the ANC, Sibongile Besani, said: “It’s unfortunate if a senior leader in the organisation comes to the front and expresses views that seek to say this Constitution is unhelpful.”
He would not be drawn on whether Sisulu has brought the party into disrepute, saying: “The ANC has adopted this Constitution and any leader of the ANC must be seen to be the custodian of the Constitution. The Constitution has got to be tested at various fronts and therefore when we have not gone at length to really test and stretch the Constitution, we can’t cry foul. The problem is that people cry on issues we should be able to test.”
Mantashe’s comments come after acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo called for Sisulu to withdraw her statement, which questioned the constitution’s ability to deal with structural issues brought about by apartheid.
Sisulu, the minister of tourism and member of the government’s executive, as well as an NEC member and senior leader of the ANC, called judges “mentally colonised Africans”.
Her comments have moved some to call for President Cyril Ramaphosa to act against her.
Others regard Sisulu’s statements as an opportunistic play for the presidency of the ANC against Ramaphosa when the party heads to its elective congress later this year.
In her opinion piece, Sisulu said that the most dangerous African is the “mentally colonised African. When you put them in leadership positions or as interpreters of the law, they are worse than your oppressor. They have no African or pan-African inspired ideological grounding. Some are confused by foreign belief systems.”
She then used the term “house negroes” before going on to say: “When it comes to crucial economic issues and property matters, the same African cosies up with their elitist colleagues to sing from the same hymn book, spouting the Roman Dutch law of property.
“But where is the indigenous law? It has been reduced to a footnote in your law schools.”
Chrispin Phiri, the spokesperson for Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, has strongly criticised Sisulu’s comments in a reply written in his personal capacity as an ANC member.
Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen called for Ramaphosa to instruct Sisulu, as minister in his cabinet, to retract and issue a public apology for undermining the judiciary and casting aspersions on its integrity.
Steenhuisen added that even if no formal finding of wrongdoing has been made regarding Sisulu’s remarks, Ramaphosa has an obligation to protect public trust in the constitutional integrity of other arms of government.
He said the DA would also call on Sisulu to appear before parliament’s ethics committee to explain how she reconciles her attack on the judiciary with the Parliamentary Code of Conduct. This code demands from members that they place the public interest above their own interests and “maintain public confidence and trust in the integrity of parliament”.
“Simply put, Minister Sisulu is not fit for cabinet, and anywhere else her job would be on the line. In a functional democracy a member of the executive who launches a calculated and damaging attack on the integrity of the judiciary would be summarily fired by the head of the executive. But we also know that President Ramaphosa demands very little in terms of accountability and ethics from his ministers and is unlikely to take such action,” Steenhuisen said.
He said a retraction and apology from Sisulu is the very least that should be demanded, arguing that if this does not happen it will leave South Africans with no option but to conclude that Ramaphosa condones her actions.
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