By Clyde N.S. Ramalaine
Having in the previous installment made a case for the leader of the Executive, President Cyril Ramaphosa, as captured, it is time to argue a captured Judiciary since the current Chief Justice Raymond Zondo attests to an interesting and intricately positioned politically captured individual. In the last five years of the Ramaphosa Administration, it has strangely become predictable to anticipate the outcome of the courts in any case where he is implicated. It has become too predictable to see a judiciary making findings against those who dare to go against the Ramaphosa faction. The courts led by the Constitutional Court in findings also show an aggressive appetite for cost orders against specific plaintiffs.
READ ALSO: Part 002: Ramaphosa’s Second Term, the Nexus of a captured SA State
Former Chief Justice Mogoeng cautioned against attempts to capture Judiciary. Addressing the 17th Nelson Mandela Annual lecture in 2019, he spoke against those trying to capture the Judiciary. When we contend that a judiciary is captured today, we must appreciate that this does not come from thin air. “You must know, there is an attempt to capture the Judiciary, and a captured judiciary will never be able to use the Constitution as an instrument of transformation because any captured member of the Judiciary will simply be told or will know in advance when so and so and so and so are involved, we better understand your place.”
Mogoeng went on to say: “Or when certain issues are involved, well the decision is known in advance, so and so can’t lose. Be on the lookout, be vigilant and be forceful in making uncomfortable anybody who seeks to establish a pliable judiciary.” This week, we lived through this caution that Mogoeng warned us of decisions known in advance before any public record of the Constitutional Court’s decision. It happened when court proceedings in the Public Protector’s case against the Legislature were unceremoniously postponed since Ishmael Abrahamjee, a legal commentator, dared to send a text message to the defence attorney Advocate Breitenbach.
Mkhwebane wanted the High Court to interdict impeachment proceedings and her possible suspension pending a decision by the Constitutional Court on whether it would rescind or reverse its earlier decision on the constitutionality of the impeachment rules, which cleared the way for the process against her to go ahead. Her rescission application was heard in March. Abramjee’s infamous SMS said: “I have it on good authority ” that the Court was ‘”going to decline to hear the public protector’s recission application.” Zondo subsequently announced an investigation.
In an eNCA’s Power to Truth conversation with JJ, Tabane, Mogoeng recalled how he was offered R600 million for the “modernisation” of South Africa’s courts in February. He used this to contend he was not going to be captured. Mogoeng is now the former Chief Justice. Effective 1 April, he is succeeded by his former deputy Raymond Zondo.
Zondo’s appointment remains shrouded in political controversy since he was not the preferred JSC candidate. We also know that Zondo scored the lowest of all four candidates, yet under presidential prerogative, Zondo was named the Chief Justice. This new awkward situation with an unresolved State of Capture Commission which Zondo chaired, will be our foreseeable future. He was installed as Chief justice despite approximately two years left to retire.
Therefore, let me start by asking if there is any democratic society where the Chief Justice moonlights for the Executive in an active Commission? A commission that became not only his resume for venerable chief justice office but also a valuable means to serve the CR22 factional political interest.
This week, Chairperson of the State of Capture Commission Raymond Zondo delivered the fourth installment of reports to the Executive. Yes, you guessed right, +R1.2bn later, this Commission remains an active one because he was granted another six-week extension to wrap up his report Meaning Zondo will now conclude his sequels of reports by 30 June. You would recall that Ramaphosa insisted on four months to study the reports before unveiling his plan of action on it. I do not hold my breath.
The fact of the matter is that upon receiving the first report, Ramaphosa committed to implementing the recommendations of the Commission. Furthermore, permit me to ask, how does a sitting executive leader commit to implementing what he has not yet studied, researched, or engaged? Is South Africa not taken for a ride on a slow boat nowhere?
As it relates to the unfolding entanglement of extensions and timeframes Zondo and Ramaphosa afford each other, we may only surmise that Ramaphosa hopes to go to the ANC’s 55th Conference without sanctioning or insisting on removing some of his critical backers. Among those who may expect to benefit from this inaction are the ANC Chairperson and Minister of Mineral Affairs Gwede Mantashe, Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile, Deputy Minister Zizi Kodwa, and others.
Zondo’s voluptuous and perhaps unnecessarily voluminous reports, while scathing on some, attest to a deafening silence on flagging Ramaphosa in any of his past roles. Senior roles better understood as Deputy President of the ANC, Chairperson of the ANC Deployment Committee, leader of Government Business, Eskom Chairperson of the War-Room, or as directly accused by former CEOs of Eskom Matshele Koko and Brian Molefe.
If that is not all, the BOSASA corruption from which the CR17 campaign benefitted in R500,000.00 donation through his son Andile’s involvement also hitherto has not made any of the Zondo unfolding reports. You will recall how Ramaphosa flip-flopped in his parliament response to this controversial donation. We are compelled to ask why Zondo is this silent and soft on Ramaphosa. We warrant knowing why Zondo’s reports cannot find against Ramaphosa? Is it true that he cannot find against the one who made possible Zondo’s biggest personal ambition, notwithstanding being the least recommended candidate?
I have been asking what is the political deal between Ramaphosa and Zondo since his reports are glaringly valuable for dealing with Ramaphosa’s foes and some troublesome friends? At the same time, it ominously exonerates Ramaphosa, who chaired the ANC Deployment Committee during the Zuma era, identified as the time of state capture. The flaky answers and blatant lies Ramaphosa under oath at the Commission of no records of such Deployment Committee did not invite any comment of question from Zondo.
Ramaphosa was the leader of business in the State as deputy president and therefore the number two in political power, yet Zondo finds nothing here to keep Matamela directly accountable when he writes the Zuma report.
We had to wait until this week to appreciate why Ramaphosa’s name will never be flagged for any sanction in any Zondo reports. We had to wait to hear the political actor Zondo again straying into politics. His most recent glaring yet brazen error came with submitting his fourth report. Zondo affords himself the inalienable right to make the glaring claim that the election of Ramaphosa into the office of the ANC presidency in December 2017 saved South Africa. Zondo dared to share his opinion on the 54th ANC election results that produced a Ramaphosa leadership. According to Zondo, the election of Ramaphosa at an ANC Elective Conference saved the country. Permit me to ask, is this anything legal observation apart from translating to a glaring political statement from the mind of Chief Justice Zondo?
I am afraid this statement contains absolutely nothing legal; hence we must deduce this is the CJ sharing his unfortunate political views on ANC elections. South Africa knows today that Zondo sees Ramaphosa’s winning an ANC election in December 2017 as the salvation of the South African society. Now you know why he is not featuring as flagged despite hardcore allegations against Ramaphosa as tabled before the Commission.
The aforementioned was not the first time Zondo showed his natural appetite as a political actor and player. He evidences a growing penchant for straying into the political spaces as an active player in ANC factional wars, holding the ace card to flag those against Ramaphosa as his primary base. We saw that with his hashed presser to respond to a politician Lindiwe Sisulu’s January 2022 article, “Hi Mzansi, have we seen justice yet?”. Zondo, visibly angry and emotional in claiming insults, came to this presser ill-prepared, possibly forced by political power to make this statement. In that instance, Zondo, wholly ill-advised and perhaps even misled by his status, decided to read a politician the riot act when she was merely exercising her constitutional rights in her daily life, that space being the political arena.
Zondo has, until now, failed to realize his political error despite his colleagues such as Dustan Mlambo, Jody Kollappen, Ngoako Ramatlodi, and even retired former DCJ Dikgang Moseneke, who all, after Sisulu’s article, shared their opinions. Their contributions confirmed the seriousness of the issue that Sisulu tabled. That being the challenge of the Constitution in its efficacy at a practical level, justice mandates for those on the margins of society.
There is little doubt that Zondo is obsessed with media attention, and he does not miss any occasion to make statements. He is marketing himself as the ‘saviour’ of the Judiciary and seeks to use the media to this end. The fundamental question is why a Chief Justice would be interested in straying into the known factional political terrains singing the praises of a politician his Commission entertained as implicated. What do we make of a Chief Justice who continues to moonlight for the Executive in active Commission? While the same Commission, in its reports, exempted sanction of outcomes, it also defined Zondo’s resume for the plush CJ position.
READ ALSO: PART 004: Is the Legislature under Ramaphosa captured?
Another reason why my hypothesis of a captured Chief Justice Zondo stands is his biased findings and political praise-singing of Pravin Gordhan. It is a given that Gordhan effectively was the principal witness for state capture at this Commission. While heaping lavish praise on Gordhan, the report omits to engage the fact that Gordhan refused to appear before the Commission. Zondo’s report is hollow on the subject matter that Gordhan was proven a confirmed a gossiper bereft of any facts on Tom Moyane’s involvement in state capture. While Gordhan emphatically levelled this claim against Moyane, under cross-examination, he had to concede he had no evidence and that his much-publicized claims were informed by mere gossip. If any other witness had made himself guilty of such, the Commission would have read them the riot act. But not Gordhan; for Zondo, he is a hero. I am afraid I have regard for the office of the Chief Justice. Still, Raymond Zondo, with his factional Ramaphosa and cronies’ allegiance, does not bring any honour to that prestigious office. I have never prayed his retirement day comes and that we can have the Judiciary in genuine reform since he does not remotely represent the hope for such judicial reform. In a sense, he marketed as the answer for judicial reform mirrors the empty statement that Ramaphosa is good for the ANC and SA.
I was hoping you could permit me to conclude that Zondo could have wasted taxpayer money because he made up his mind long before hearing any evidence that the Gordhan narrative is above reproach. I have concluded that Zondo is an active political player in robes. Why subject us to three years to tell us what we already knew?
*Clyde N.S. Ramalaine
Political Analyst & Freelance Writer
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