Judges lay down the rule of law

The heads of the country’s courts have asked Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng to speak to President Jacob Zuma about the dangers of the “repeated and unfounded criticism of the judiciary”.

The heads of court – including the judges president of all the high courts and the president of the Supreme Court of Appeal – came to this decision yesterday after holding an extraordinary meeting to discuss what they referred to as “relations” among the three branches of state.

The meeting followed criticism against the judiciary from ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande in the past few weeks. It also followed an apparent disregard by the executive of a court order to prevent Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir from leaving South Africa after attending an African Union conference.

Mantashe remarked that some judges were against the state. He also said there were concerns that the judgments of certain high court divisions consistently went against the state.

Nzimande said the courts had to respect parliament and the executive.

In a statement by the judges read out by Mogoeng in Johannesburg yesterday, they said such criticism could potentially delegitimise the courts.

Mogoeng said the heads of court felt Zuma was the person to talk to regarding the criticism.

“The president is also the president of the ANC. The ANC is a critical component of the tripartite alliance.

“To the extent that some statements were attributed to roleplayers in the alliance, Zuma was best placed to discuss these concerns,” Mogoeng said.

Mogoeng also said the constitution set out the powers of each arm of state and no arm of the state was entitled to intrude upon the domain of another.

“However, the constitution requires the judiciary ultimately to determine the limits and regulate the exercise of public power,” Mogoeng said.

He said judges should be susceptible to constructive criticism and that the criticism should be fair and in good faith.

Mogoeng said the rule of law was the cornerstone of the country’s constitutional democracy.

“As a nation, we ignore it at our peril. Also, the rule of law dictates that court orders should be obeyed.”

He said the judiciary’s experience was that court orders had largely been honoured by other arms of state.

He said the few instances where court orders had not been complied with, whatever the reason, had the effect of undermining the rule of law.

Mogoeng denied that the country had reached a crisis point.

“It is at most a moment of deep reflection and a moment of brutal institutional introspection.” — mabuzae@timesmedia.co.za