South Africa’s axed deputy president Jacob Zuma has questioned the independence of the judiciary, suggesting that sensationalist media coverage influenced the Supreme Court of Appeal in its ruling against graft-accused businessman Schabir Shaik.
In an address to the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef), Zuma took editors to task for ‘chasing sales and profits through unfair and sensational reporting” related to the rape and corruption cases against him.
‘My reputation was torn to pieces,” Zuma said, referring to the now infamously incorrect quote on his ‘generally corrupt relationship” with Shaik, who was his former financial adviser and has since been jailed for corruption.
‘A most interesting development no doubt is the revelation that maybe even the judiciary is not immune to media influence,” Zuma continued.
‘Five members of the Supreme Court of Appeal also erroneously attributed the ‘generally corrupt relationship’ to Judge (Hilary) Squires in the civil judgement in the appeal of Mr Shaik. Now these are people we are supposed to look up to, who are meant to look at cold facts and not be influenced by the media or public opinion.”
‘The SCA has commendably acknowledged the error in attributing the finding to Squires. This grave error by the media cannot be wished away. It provides an opportunity for the media to conduct a serious introspection, to evaluate to what extent they are independent in thought and action, with regards to the events unfolding in our country,” Zuma said at the Sanef council dinner in Sandton on Sunday evening.
At its council meeting on Monday, Sanef acknowledged the ‘the frequent and widespread repetition of the misquote”, saying it ‘constitutes a most regrettable error”.
‘Sanef was of the view, however, that the error was not deliberate and did not indicate any pervasive lack of professionalism,” the organisation said.