Justice Moseneke calls Zuma a ‘bumbling fool’

Former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke spoke last night at an event at the University of the Witwatersrand in his honour. Moseneke is leaving Wits, where he had been a chancellor for twelve years.

In his address, the respected judge did not mince words about former president Jacob Zuma.

Mosekene said that South Africa did not have the strength to confront “the bumbling fool who was … acting as a president and tell him he’s a fool, and tell him he’s incapable of [adhering to] the high ideals of our liberation struggle. And as we failed to do that, we actually allowed so much devastation and poor people became poorer”.

He added that “a few people who were more adept at stealing” were able to enrich themselves and that the details of this were coming out through the commission of inquiry into state capture, chaired by “my esteemed colleague Justice Zondo”.

READ MORE: Dikgang Moseneke orders govt to pay R1.2m to each bereaved Life Esidimeni family

Moseneke has a bit of a history when it comes to both Zuma and the ANC.

In 2009, the ANC called on him to apologise for remarks he had made about the party at his birthday celebration.

In 2011, Moseneke, who would have been an obvious choice for next chief justice, having been deputy and acting chief justice before, was overlooked for the position by Jacob Zuma.

In 2016, Moseneke was one of the Constitutional Court judges who ruled that Zuma had violated his oath of office by refusing to comply with then public protector Thuli Madonsela’s remedial action regarding the spending on his Nkandla compound. That full judgement is available here.

Moseneke on #Zuma and #StateCapature & the #ZondoCommission: “For the last ten years we all lost the guts to tell a bumbling fool acting as a president that he was a fool and we thus allowed so much devastation & poor ppl became poorer.” pic.twitter.com/IdDbOZynmN

— Shirona37 (@shirona37) November 28, 2018

In the same speech, Moseneke included Zuma on a list alongside Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump as a politician who creates racial divisions.

“We are one race, one people. Let’s leave the racism to Hitler, to Trump, and to Jacob Zuma who maintain that there are fundamental differences between us. This is utter rubbish,” he said.

Moseneke: “We are one race, one people…let’s leave the racism to Hitler, to Trump, and to Jacob Zuma who maintain that there are fundamental differences between us. This is utter rubbish!” pic.twitter.com/A6qWQJ92df

— Shirona37 (@shirona37) November 28, 2018

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