The African National Congress has launched a series of well-planned attacks on the independence of the South African judiciary, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon warned on Monday.
In a speech prepared for delivery at a DA caucus meeting in Johannesburg, he said the ruling party is ”using charges of real or imagined racism to intimidate the judiciary and create a more executive-minded bench”.
”Stung by its defeat at the Supreme Court of Appeal in the pharmaceutical pricing case late last year, and looking ahead to a number of critical judicial decisions in the next few months, the ANC has launched a well-planned series of attacks on the independence of the … judiciary.”
These started on January 8, when the ANC declared there is a need to ”transform the collective mindset of the judiciary”, and that ”many within our judiciary” are not part of, or accountable to, the ”masses” of the people.
”Since then, there have been a number of similar gestures, all connected by common rhetoric and the common aim of subjugating judges to the authority of the executive and the ruling party.”
Leon said legitimate concerns about racism and the appointment of black judges are being deliberately tied to a completely illegitimate assault on the independence and integrity of South Africa’s judiciary.
It is worth remembering the word ”transformation” is not in the Constitution.
”It is an ideological imperative of the ANC. As such, it has no legal standing whatsoever.
”Rather than holding the courts up to the standards of ‘transformation’, it is the duty of the courts to hold ‘transformation’ up to the standards of South African law.”
Leon said the problem of racism in the judiciary is a separate matter, and one that should be taken extremely seriously.
”There might well be one or more judges in South Africa, black or white, who are guilty of manifest racism.
”Any judge who was found to be a racist after a proper and deliberate investigation, with a proper weighing and testing of evidence, should obviously be asked to resign, or, in extreme cases, be impeached.
”Equally, the same process should apply to anyone who is found to have made reckless and unsubstantiated allegations of racism against a judicial officer,” he said. — Sapa