Kenneth Mokgatlhe
AFRICAN Transformation Movement and Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) blame the current unrest on the Constitutional Court (ConCourt). This is after the apex court ordered the arrest of the former President Jacob Zuma, and a 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court.
The pro-Zuma protests began last week, after former president Zuma handed himself in at Estcourt prison, in KwaZulu-Natal.
The protests started in KwaZulu-Natal and spread to Gauteng.
According to ATM, the current problems need political intervention by the government.
“First of all, from the issue of Zuma’s judgment, we believe that there is a political problem which requires a political solution,” ATM president Vuyo Zungula said.
“It is a common practice to ask for a recusal, the former president Zuma was well within his rights to do so,” Zungula said.
This is after Zuma asked the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture’s chairperson Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo to recuse himself.
Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo refused the recusal application by Zuma.
“The Deputy Chief Justice (DCJ) is the second-in-command after the Chief Justice, and he should be seen to be fair. He was short-sighted on the issue of the ConCourt, and that does not paint him as an individual without an agenda,” Zungual added.
The PAC said that the current situation was influenced by the judiciary, saying “the country is in this mess because the judiciary can and has been politicised, both before and after 1994. Before 1994 to protect apartheid colonial interests, post-1994 to defend the neo-colonialism, imperialism, international finance capital, and national bourgeoisie interests,” PAC spokesperson Jaki Seroke said.
“The ConCourt appears to be above even its own bourgeois law. At any rate, it is evident that judges may hold different views, not only about the law per se, but their views serve interests which jurisprudence serves: capitalist interests,” Seroke added.