Rule of law in South Africa protects even those who scorn it

HUGH CORDER|

YET another war of words is being waged in South Africa, ostensibly over the role of the courts in delivering the change envisaged in the constitution.

As usual, given that most attacks on court judgements have come from leading members of the governing African National Congress (ANC), the opening salvos were fired by a member of the cabinet – tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu, in a recent opinion piece in the media.

In the piece, she clearly seeks to evade her (the ANC’s) direct responsibility for their failure over the past 27 years effectively to implement policies and programmes that would have delivered socio-economic rights and services to alleviate poverty and inequality.

Aside from calling some black judges “mentally colonised” and “house negroes”, Sisulu threw in rhetoric about imperial impositions and the negation of African values. She singled out the rule of law for particular disdain.

This seems odd