Chief Justice Raymond Zondo
The ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal leadership has launched a stinging attack on Chief Justice Raymond Zondo over his comments that the governing party had protected former president Jacob Zuma and others involved in state capture in parliament.
The party’s provincial secretary, Bheki Mtolo, tore into Zondo at an ANC media briefing in Durban on Tuesday, accusing him of playing politics and demanding that he be “stopped” from “mobilising the judiciary” against the party.
Zondo — who chaired the commission of inquiry into state capture — made his remarks about Zuma and the ANC at the University of Fort Hare’s OR Tambo Memorial lecture at the weekend.
In his address, Zondo said some of the people who were behind state capture had sacrificed a lot to ensure apartheid was defeated but “don’t have the kind of values that OR Tambo had”.
“Some of them want to make sure that they eat first and their families eat first. They have no shame that they knew Tambo personally, and that wherever he is with people like [Nelson] Mandela, would turn in their grave when they see whatever they are doing,” Zondo said in the lecture.
Mtolo said it was “becoming very clear that Justice Zondo views himself as above everybody else in this country”.
“He is a referee, a player, a goalkeeper, a linesman and assistant referee, all in one,” Mtolo said. “He is the jack of all trades. He has descended to nothing else but a pure political charlatan that must be exposed of his true intentions.”
Mtolo said the time may have come to “ask if South Africa is not facing a judiciary capture” as this would be “the worst kind of state capture in our democracy”.
The chief justice had mobilised the “whole judiciary” against the ANC and had “ceased to be an impartial adjudicator on matters involving the ANC”.
“It was not only strange but reckless for the chief justice to use OR Tambo — who was a
politician and an ANC stalwart — to attack other ANC leaders and the party itself. We do understand that all South Africans have political views but the chief justice should know better,” Mtolo said.
Mtolo accused Zondo of having “showed the public a middle finger” by “disregarding the separation of powers principle between the executive, judicial and legislative branches of the government”.
Zondo’s public criticism of ANC MPs in particular had “given rise to a tension between the judiciary and the legislature”.
“It is clear that our parliament will never get impartial treatment from the constitutional court because the chief justice holds a strong view that members of parliament of the majority party are not good enough to hold such positions,” Mtolo said.
“He needs to be stopped and be exposed that he is a politician playing opposition politics and hiding under the title of a judge.”
The office of the chief justice had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.