Zuma should play by the rules

“We should not have to be dragooned into setting high standards in public life. We should willingly seek maximum openness about what our public representatives do, and receive.” These words are as true today as they were in 1996, when senior African National Congress member Kader Asmal said them. Intrinsically connected with the advent of [...]

The Judiciary and Politics

By Shameela Seedat When the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) meets later this year to consider who will replace four titans of the Constitutional Court when their terms expire this October, it will be one of the first real opportunities to assess where our courts stand since this year’s election. The departing judges are Pius Langa, [...]

SA Needs Pragmatism and Reassurance – Pre-State of the Nation

A month has passed since the April 22 election. The South African economy has entered its first official recession since the early 1990s. With a contraction of 6.4 percent in gross domestic product (GDP) in the last quarter and zero percent growth forecast for the second quarter of this year, all indications are that the [...]

Zuma and His Cabinet

- By Judith February -  South Africans’ capacity for magnanimity has been well-displayed these past weeks. Jacob Zuma is our President. Despite the cloud of corruption which will continue to hang over his head despite occupying the highest office, we, the people, have a responsibility not only to demand accountability but to put our shoulders [...]

Zuma and his cabinet

-By Judith February – South Africans’ capacity for magnanimity has been well-displayed these past weeks. Jacob Zuma is our President. Despite the cloud of corruption which will continue to hang over his head despite occupying the highest office, we, the people, have a responsibility not only to demand accountability but to put our shoulders to [...]

The State of SA’s Democratic Institutions

- By Shameela Seedat – Media coverage leading up to next month’s national elections would leave many of us convinced of a dramatic plunge over the past few years in the level of public trust in South African democratic institutions. Several significant events have led to such dwindling enthusiasm. These events include, to mention a [...]

A Quick Guide to the Jacob Zuma Matter

See this quick guide to the basics on the Jacob Zuma matter … why did the NPA bring charges? Why did they drop charges? Is this the end of the case? What legal precedents are being set and what is their significance?

Zuma – More Questions Than Answers

- By Judith February – The charges against Jacob Zuma have been dropped and we are all being urged to ‘move on’.  It is now abundantly clear that what we have witnessed over the past 8 years has been the ANC’s inter-necine battles simmering underneath the genteel edifice of our Constitutional democracy. It makes a [...]

Politics Trumps Justice? Zuma and the NPA

The piecemeal manner in which the NPA has chosen to deal with these issues has unfortunately left many questions unresolved and has also posed a raft of new questions. Foremost among these is whether we will ever definitively know Jacob Zuma’s guilt or innocence, and whether the NPA’s unpersuasive ‘policy’ rationale is indicative of another instance of inappropriate political pressure trumping purely legal considerations?