The plan of Jacob Zuma and apparently some of the ANC's to meddle with the Concourt is BAD.
Apparently they find the excuse for doing so in the fact that the Concourt does deliver split or majority and minority judgments - a phenomenon all over the world by the way where more than judge sits on the same case.
Well then just publish the majority judgments. Or will there be arguments about whether the published judgment is in fact the majority judgment?
Or are we saying that only unanimous judgments will be acceptable, making judgments of the courts a qua - the "lower" courts - untouchable if the Concourt cannot reach unanimity on the issues previously decided by the "lower" courts?
Or is it the intention to allow one single judge to sit on a matter and so eliminate potential alternative views on the matter before that judge? Which means that it becomes easy to pick the "right" judge to adjudicate the matter. Do we see perhaps the thinking behind a certain recent appointment to the Concourt of a certain Chief Justice taking practical effect? He should show his mettle NOW by speaking out on the issue so we the public may know where his loyalties lie: with the judicial system's impartiality or with the politicians' ideas of how the legal system should operate.
Makes the mind confused thinking about this. What are they really proposing?
Just as one starts thinking JZ - or even the rest of the ANC - may be olraait then reality smacks your right through the face.
Reviewing the powers of the court means reviewing the functions of the court and its practical effect on the judicial system and the country. It means that the Concourt's powers will be adjusted to fit the ideas of certain politicians. Which of course means the powers will be adjusted to favour the politicians. Which of course means that once again the average citizen and the country is being sacrificed for the benefit of the few elite. Haven't we all taken a few lessons from our past of how horrible it is if you stand alone against the state and its movers and shakers without judicial protection as so many experienced during Apartheid? It is not true, as some will try to convince us, that the courts are being used to fight the government - or the ANC. The courts are being used to protect our democracy and freedoms. The government and the politicians are part of that system.
Unfortunately most people in the country do not seem to know what is really going on and do not realize what is being planned for them.
Lose a freedom or its protection and it becomes a matter of decades to reclaim it - if ever during your lifetime.
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