HUGH CORDER|
SOME prominent politicians from South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) recently questioned the role of the courts in the constitution.
In January, tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu insulted the judges as “colonised” for enforcing the constitution, which she blamed for continued black deprivation 28 years into democracy.
Later, Sihle Zikalala, the premier of KwaZulu-Natal province, called for a return to parliamentary democracy.
He accused the (“unelected”) judiciary of frustrating government’s transformation agenda.
They both sit on the ANC’s national executive committee, its highest decision-making body between national elective conferences.
They may well be testing the waters ahead of the next elective conference in December.
But, nothing excuses the short-sighted irresponsibility of such utterances, and the ghastly consequences that may ensue.
If South Africa is tempted by these options, it will be discarding centuries of struggle aimed at establishing a democratic system in which public power is regulated by law.
Since the origins of communal
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