EFF condemns the mindless attacks on the judiciary by the ANC

25 June 2015

The Economic Freedom Fighters condemns the mindless and myopic attacks on the judiciary by the ANC following the outcome of the High Court on the Al-Bashir matter. The ANC is hellbent on eradicating all institutions of democracy for as long as they do not agree with them.

The ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe was quoted as saying, “there is a drive in sections of the judiciary to create chaos for government. We know if it doesn’t happen in the Western Cape High Court, it will happen in the Northern Gauteng – those are the two benches where you always see that the narrative is totally negative and create a contradiction.”

This was followed by the Higher education Minister Blade Ndzimande who also said that, “sections of the judiciary tend to somehow overreach into areas that one would expect even in a constitutional state to tread very, very carefully.”

These are open and irresponsible attacks on the judiciary which obviously considers matters brought in front of it on the basis of laws approved by politicians in parliament. The judiciary would not arrive at the conclusions they do if it is not required by laws of our country.

The worst of ANC’s attacks on court came from Police Minister Nathi Nhleko who said, “some elements of the judiciary meet with characters to produce certain judgments.” This is not only questioning the integrity of our judges, it borders on contempt of court. The EFF calls on the judiciary to actually consider charging Nhleko of contempt of court to put a firm stop on attacks by the political elite.

These attacks demonstrate no respect for constitutional democracy and the independence of the judiciary. They signify that ANC is willing to bury all institutions that represent the rule of law simply to protect their incompetence and inadequacy.

The judiciary remains the only institution in the country to which the ruling party’s cancerous deployments have not compromised. In as much as it remains untransformed, public attacks on it will only render the rule of law useless and plunge us into anarchy. The outcomes of the bench of some of the country’s most senior judges – including Judge President Dunstan Mlambo, Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba and Judge Hans Fabricius must be respected.

If the ANC understood its duty in the continent and if they knew what joining the ICC entails, they should have taken steps to withdraw from it. The EFF will never celebrate the advancement of the African agenda at the expense of our own hard won democracy simply because of the ANC’s weak leadership and lack of foresight.

The day court orders are undermined by those in power is the day we fully usher in dictatorship and autocracy.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, June 25 2015