WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-12-15 Time: 15:00:09 Posted By: Jan
By Murray Williams and Christelle Terreblanche
The ANC has found itself in a public relations quandary after statements by party secretary-general Gwede Mantashe which suggest that the party holds contempt for the rule of law.
In weekend reports Mantashe was quoted as describing Judge President of the Transvaal Provincial Division Bernard Ngoepe and his deputy Jerry Shongwe as “apartheid apologists” for concurring with Judge Ben du Plessis that the Congress of the People (COPE) was entitled to use the name – after an ANC legal challenge to prohibit this.
Mantashe added that he could “forgive” Judge Du Plessis for not understanding the ANC’s history because he was white.
| ‘undoing the progress we have made’ |
On Monday morning the Cape Argus asked ANC spokesperson Carl Niehaus whether Mantashe’s comments represented the ANC’s formal view.
“The statements by the SG reflect the unhappiness and frustration that the ANC has with these judgments.”
“But despite this unhappiness and frustration, we have stated that we accept the judgment,” Niehaus said.
He said this was because the ANC had committed itself to “respecting the rule of law”.
Niehaus did not wish to comment on Mantashe’s words specifically, but painted some “context”.
First, the ruling had caused extreme unhappiness, because of how strongly the ANC felt about its heritage.
Secondly, the ANC viewed COPE as “counter-revolutionaries”, who were bent on “taking us back to the past and undoing the progress we have made”.
And, thirdly, the party believed that certain legal judgments “seem to serve the agendas of the past, rather than the future”.
Together, these three factors could have given rise to Mantashe’s comments, he said.
Niehaus again stressed, however, that the ANC “accepted the judgment”, but would now seek leave to appeal.
Prominent lawyers’ organisations and the DA have slammed Mantashe for the attack and COPE deputy interim chairperson Mbhazima Shilowa warned that South Africa could be going the “Zimbabwe route”.
Addressing the media at Cope’s inaugural conference in Mangaung, Shilowa said the change of course was “mammoth” given the ANC’s disregard for the judiciary.
“It is a mammoth task …because how do you say to these judges (that) this is what we think of them? When we say the judiciary is under threat, the ANC says no we don’t need a debate about these things. There is no such thing. But listen to their occurrences.”
Shilowa said for the ANC it was “fine” when Judge Chris Nicholson ruled in their favour, nullifying the corruption prosecution against Jacob Zuma.
“If you rule against them, you must be some apartheid apologist,” he said.
“Now that is why I am saying we have to change the course of history. That is why we would never go the route of Zimbabwe.”
DA deputy justice spokesperson Len Joubert said it has now become a refrain for the ANC to play the race card when it attacks the judiciary.
“I think Zuma, as president of the ANC, should now at the very least come down on them and say ‘respect the judiciary’.”
Earlier national chairperson of Advocates for Transformation Dumisa Ntsebeza SC called Mantashe’s comments “inappropriate” and “out of order”.
Black Lawyers’ Association president Andiswa Ndoni also warned that the ANC was not setting an example to citizens in how to respect the constitution and judiciary.