Zuma wants judiciary out of the way - analyst

A report in The Citizen notes that John Kane-Berman said in a speech in Cape Town that a number of commentators had professed themselves 'baffled' and 'in some cases stunned' by Zuma's failure to appoint Dikgang Moseneke (Deputy Chief Justice) as Chief Justice. 'One editorial in the Mail & Guardian newspaper said that President Zuma portrays a profound lack of understanding about role of judiciary in a constitutional democracy,' Kane-Berman said. 'On the contrary Zuma understands that role perfectly well. He just doesn't agree with it. And he wants to make sure the judiciary doesn't get in his way or scrutinise him too deeply.' Kane-Berman also said Zuma's decision to appoint a commission to investigate the multi-billion rand arms deal could also be a simple 'tactical manoeuvre' by Zuma to avoid answering to the Constitutional Court. Kane-Berman said the ANC's clampdown on the press was entirely predictable. Many journalists and 'a number of foreign governments' had been surprised by the ANC's attempts to clamp down on the press, he said. Within the context of the party's National Democratic Revolution philosophy, however, a clampdown on the media was 'entirely predictable,' the report quotes him as saying. Full report in The Citizen

The judiciary and the media are seen by ANC as obstacles to a socialist 'national democratic revolution', Kane-Berman is quoted as saying in a report in Business Day. He noted that in SA the imperial model had been translated into white and black, with the wealth in white hands being there from exploitation and not enterprise. This made white wealth illegitimate in the eyes of the national democratic revolution, a fact ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema understood perfectly. The Constitution was a compromise and had led to accusations that the ANC had betrayed the revolution. Kane-Berman quoted Deputy Correctional Services Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi's recent interviews on the role of the judiciary as indicating that the Constitution was but a 'staging post on the way to the national democratic revolution'. He said attacks on the judiciary presaged attacks on the Constitution itself. Full Business Day report