As competition for leadership of the ANC at its December elective conference heats up, many candidates are busy looking for scapegoats to shore their support. One of the most convenient, populist and diversionary tactics is to attack the judiciary for being anti-transformation and to blame for the rut in which the country finds itself.
The judiciary is not sacrosanct and is open to criticism like any other structure of society. But what is problematic is the vacuous criticism directed at it.
For one, who is responsible between the executive, legislature and judiciary for the transformation of the country? The judiciary is not there to drive transformation, which is a political project. Judges apply laws that are put into place by the politicians that accuse them of anti-transformation.
Judges are not political, and are driven by the statute books to make their decisions. So, if we are to blame them for being anti, who is impeding them in making the laws which they have to apply?
The other element in this debate is the inane view that the judiciary is inconsistent in making decisions. This notion nonsensically assumes that the hundreds of judges and magistrates should have one viewpoint on everything. This is delusional.
Even members of the same court can have strong opposing views on the same matter. The same court which made a decision earlier can overturn it later. Politicians should avoid (diverting attention from) their own inability to change society by using the excuse that other structures of society are responsible for their failures.
*Dr Thabisi Hoeane, Pretoria.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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