Attack on our sterling judiciary is unfair

I often wonder, for very good reason, what our beloved country would be if it were not for our sterling judiciary, stout
civil society and tenacious media.

Probably the Guptas would still be running this country, schoolchildren drowning in pit toilets; no one would know that former president Jacob Zuma’s palatial Nkandla homestead was funded by the taxpayer; the payment of social grants would be a mess and the basic education department would still be clueless of its constitutional obligation to ensure all pupils have textbooks.

Livelihoods, habitats and the environment would be ravaged by indifferent mining companies chasing minerals over lives; victims of silicosis would not see justice and the transport department would be marching on with the invalid and unconstitutional Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act.

Energy giant Shell would be using seismic waves to explore for oil and gas in the Indian Ocean; at least 380 SA foreign-trained doctors would not practice in the country of their birth in dire need of doctors; people would still be
dying unnecessarily from HIV/Aids.

This is why the timing of the recent attacks and debate on the judiciary is very curious, particularly when the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is tasked with taking criminal cases against those fingered in the state capture commission for trial before the judiciary.

What a time to attack the patriotic and ideological grounding of those in the judiciary. But also it makes perfect sense and makes the case that the guilty are beginning to feel the heat. South Africans expect nothing but no fear,
favour or prejudice from the prosecutorial and judicial authorities.

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No amount of name-calling or vitriolic attacks on the judiciary and on those determined to stop corruption and reclaim the state from the grip of thieves. The intentions of these attacks on the judicial authority are not designed to inform or spark debate, but to heap doubt on the very authority tasked by the constitution to oversee justice.

This was the very reason key organs of state such as the SA Revenue Service, State Security Agency, the NPA and the SA Police Service were hollowed out, those dedicated to their jobs hounded out; so that the greedy and selfish
could continue with their nefarious dealings unhindered.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, famously said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

Seemingly, perpetrators and beneficiaries of the state capture project would want us to believe that our judiciary has an agenda but what many South Africans know is the suffering and destruction of corruption.

They want to believe in the rule of law and want to see those responsible for their miseries pay. What they want to see is the police investigating and rounding up the corrupt, the NPA bringing watertight cases before the judicial authorities.

The judiciary has proved itself many times before as the bulwark of our constitution and, ultimately, the rule of law.