{"id":175209,"date":"2017-05-16T07:10:53","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T05:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=175209"},"modified":"2017-05-16T09:06:34","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T07:06:34","slug":"__trashed-59__trashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/175209\/__trashed-59__trashed\/","title":{"rendered":"ANC asks for laws to stop courts from interfering with parliament: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ANC in KwaZuluNatal has asked Parliament to pass a law that will restrict the courts from interfering with the affairs of the legislature and President Jacob Zuma\u2019s decisions, according to a report by The Mercury<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Over 600 ANC members marched to the Durban High Court on Monday to hand over their memorandum, in which they accused\u00a0South Africa’s courts of\u00a0of making \u201cunfavourable judgments\u201d against the ruling party.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a party had taken a parliamentary matter to court unsuccessfully it should be fined by paying court costs through deducting from salaries of members of the party,\u201d said ANC chairman Sihle Zikalala.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court should apply a law to protect itself from being abused by those who had been defeated during elections, and during debates in parliament,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zikalala also called for the recall of\u00a0South Gauteng High Court Judge Bashier Valley who earlier in May found in favour of the Democratic Alliance and instructed President Jacob Zuma to furnish reasons for his cabinet reshuffle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe high court should review the employment of Judge Valley because it is clear that other judges have taken a political stand, and they are biased,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Zikalala.<\/p>\n

Class politics<\/strong><\/h3>\n

According to a report by The Star<\/a><\/strong>, other well-known Zuma supporters have also attacked the judiciary, stating that the country’s courts are being heavily influenced by the wealthy at the expense of poor.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe are also saying the judges must do their work and interpret the constitution correctly. They must also respect the separation of powers. There is a tendency now that some of the judges are beginning to not separate the institutions,” said Deputy Defence minister, Kebby Maphatsoe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This was echoed by Social Development Minister\u00a0Bathabile Dlamini this past weekend, where she heavily criticised her ANC comrades who were \u201cconniving with the boers\u201d and were briefing the judiciary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judiciary is supposed to protect the poor. But it\u2019s not protecting the poor, it\u2019s protecting the rich because our government is diluted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judiciary’s response\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Speaking at Monday’s Constitutional Court hearing on the secret ballot, the country’s top judge\u00a0Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng also heavily hinted at threats being issued against the judiciary from political parties, noted eNCA<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In a throw-away comment during Monday’s Constitutional Court hearing, Mogoeng suggested judges face dangers more serious than the risk of losing their jobs, for taking unpopular decisions.<\/p>\n

Shortly after receiving the demands from the ANC in KZN, the office of the Chief Justice released a statement reaffirming its commitment to the judicial principles of independence, impartiality, dignity accessibility and fairness.<\/p>\n

“The courts, as provided for in our Constitution, exist to promote the rule of law and to uphold the supreme law of the country , the Constitution,” it said.<\/p>\n

“The South African judiciary has been and will continue to be fearless in its approach to promote the rule of law and safeguard its independence.”<\/p>\n

“The South African Judiciary further reaffirms its commitment to the doctrine of separation of powers – provided for in the Constitution- which vests the legislative autonomy in the Legislature, the executive autonomy in the Executive and the judicial authority in the courts.”<\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a0Be prepared for dictatorship \u2013 Malema warns about Zuma<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ANC in KwaZuluNatal has challenged Parliament to pass a law that will restrict the courts from interfering with the affairs of the legislature and President Jacob Zuma\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":167757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-175209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-active"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175209"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175273,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175209\/revisions\/175273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}