Beware new 'apartheid' - Lekota
2009-01-24 15:38
Port Elizabeth - The independence and integrity of the judiciary should be defended, Congress of the People president Mosioua Lekota said on Saturday in Port Elizabeth.
"Judicial authority is vested in the courts. They are independent and subject only to the constitution... The time has come that all South Africans live up to this constitutional decree and be prepared to defend it.
"None of us should be allowed to question verdicts of our courts without the proper 'evidenciary' foundation and in a manner that undermines the authority and dignity of the judiciary," he said while delivering an address on the party's election manifesto which was earlier outlined by his deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa.
He called on Cope supporters to "rise to the challenge of the defence of our national constitution", which is the basis of all law in the land.
Emphasising the principle of equality before the law, Lekota said: "Today's threats to the violation of the right of equality before the law... are visible on the horizon."
Apartheid
He said apartheid had been fundamentally about inequalities before the law and "we cannot and will not allow our country to recede and sink into the quagmire of its well known outcome".
Lekota further said equality before the law must be extended to all South Africans irrespective of the positions or the leadership they occupy.
Lekota was addressing a packed Wolfson's Stadium in Port Elizabeth flanked by Shilowa and his second deputy president Linda Odendaal.
Also present was Allan Boesak, former ANC communications head Smuts Ngonyama and IsiXhosa King Maxmobaya Khawuleza Sandile.
The crowd paid tribute to Mbeki, singing songs in his praise and bearing posters which read: "Mbeki, we hope you Cope", "Mbeki, this is your home".
Mbeki's mother Epainette, who reportedly joined Cope, was not seen at the event.
Lekota formed the Congress of the People last year along with other senior members of the ANC who were disgruntled about their party's treatment of former president Thabo Mbeki.
The party was formed shortly after Mbeki's recall by the ANC and subsequent resignation as president.
- SAPA