ANC in KZN slams Zondo for criticising party’s leadership

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has lambasted Chief Justice Raymond Zondo for his recent remarks which the party leadership described as an attack on the ANC.

Delivering the OR Tambo memorial lecture at the University of Fort Hare a few days ago, Zondo criticised the ANC as a governing party with a majority in Parliament for making it possible for the Gupta family to capture the state.

Tambo, Zondo said, would turn in his grave for some of the things done by “his fellow comrades”.

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However, ANC KZN provincial secretary, Bheki Mtolo, accused Zondo of being “a politician playing opposition politics and hiding under the title of a judge”.

Mtolo, who was briefing the media in Durban on Tuesday, following the recent ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) meeting, said Zondo’s remarks were an invitation for other judges to work against the ANC.

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Maybe the time has come for us as the nation to ask if South Africa is not facing a judiciary capture because that would be the worst kind of state capture in our democracy.
“He has now mobilised the whole judiciary against the African National Congress. He has ceased to be an impartial adjudicator on matters involving the ANC. His public criticism of the members of the ANC in the National Assembly in particular has given rise to a tension between the judiciary and the legislature.”

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The ANC-led Parliament, Mtolo said, would not get a fair hearing at the Constitutional Court given that the court is headed by Zondo.

To this end, it is clear that our parliament will never get impartial treatment from the Constitutional Court because the chief justice holds a strong view that members of parliament of the majority party are not good enough to hold such positions.