South Africa spared the zeal of Mogoeng

Is former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng disappearing down a fanatical religious rabbit hole – or was he always an evangelical zealot with a massive Messiah complex?

Whatever the answer, his latest public statements indicated that South Africans may have dodged the proverbial bullet when he stepped down at the end of his 10-year term.

His latest “miracle” occurred, in his own words, when he cured a couple from HIV/Aids with just the power of his prayer.

In a religious address in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, this month, Mogoeng said the incident happened when he was a “young Christian”.

His employee and his wife had HIV/Aids and had already lost a child to the deadly disease.

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“They became thin. I said ‘In the name of Jesus the spirit of HIV/Aids leave’,” he recalled.

While we have no problem with deeply held religious beliefs, the scientific reality is that HIV/Aids is not a spirit, nor can it simply vanish through the power of prayer.

The comments echo his remarks last year when he said he would never have a Covid vaccine which bore the mark of the devil and was meant to corrupt people’s DNA.

Thank goodness that a man who believes he has the power to perform miracles no longer runs our apex court.