Africa-Press – South-Africa. Former chief justice Raymond Zondo has called for a more independent judiciary, arguing presidents enjoy too much power over it, which lends itself to judicial capture.
Speaking at the South African Council of Churches anti-corruption conference on Wednesday, Zondo placed his faith in the judiciary, saying it was independent, strong, competent, fearless and without prejudice.
His statements come after KwaZulu-Natal commissioner of police Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi accused members of the judiciary of having been involved in corruption during a media briefing which led to the suspension of police minister Senzo Mchunu.
Zondo said the judiciary could not play its rightful role in the fight against corruption if it did not have resources.
He said courts in Gauteng have been suffering from a lack of capacity of judges and resources, resulting in years for litigants to get trial dates, whether criminal or civil. He said the church should support the judiciary’s call for independence.
Zondo said the judiciary should control its own budget and resources to enable it to appoint personnel without the involvement of the executive.
“In this regard, I was happy with the recent announcement by the president that the judiciary will be given its full and complete institutional independence. We have been fighting for this for a long time. The previous chief justice is brought forward. I played my role, but the executive has been dragging its feet for years.
“We ask for nothing more than what other arms of the state, the executive branch of government and legislative branch of government, have. All we say is, let us have the same power to control our operations. In that way, society is able to confront us when we do not do well, and we will not have the excuse of saying it’s somebody else sitting in Pretoria or Cape Town who has not made decisions that need to be made. Without an independent judiciary, including institutional independence, our fight against corruption is weakened.”
Zondo said the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), which effectively appoints judges, gives presidents and majority parties “too much power”.
He argued the JSC process means a president and majority party can come together and decide which candidates are judges. He said another weakness in the constitution was the president’s power to appoint a justice minister without consultation.
“The JSC can be controlled by the majority party and when there is no majority party. If two or more parties come together to form a majority they can control and make sure the people who are at the JSC will vote in a certain way to make sure certain candidates succeed.
“If this is not addressed, and unfortunately it requires constitutional amendment, this door remains open for the capture of the judiciary. We should never allow that. We are lucky that over 30 years, when the constitutional provision was there, this did not happen, but it can happen any time. We should never want a situation where, when it happens, we look back and say, we knew this door was open, but we did not close it,” he said, adding the JSC should include judges.
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