The Zuma trial and Mbekis double standards
Publish date: 07 April 2006
Issue Number: 1556
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Corruption
Human rights activist, Rhoda Kadalie, in her column in Business Day, suggests Jacob Zumas supporters have a right to think that he has been set up, arguing the trial could be seen as an unfortunate spin-off of the double standards that mark the way the Thabo Mbeki presidency has dealt with corruption in the corridors of power.
She writes: what this whole sorry saga points to is contempt for the rule of law when President Mbeki applies double standards. Mbeki is weakening the constitutional state with his inconsistencies around what gets investigated and what doesnt. Can we blame the masses when they become deeply suspicious of the rule of law? She adds that Judge Willem Van der Merwe (who is presiding over the Zuma trial) is under enormous pressure to do the politically correct thing. As a white Afrikaner male, he will not escape the racist prejudices Judge Hilary Squires (the judge in the Schabir Shaik corruption trial who found Zuma to be party to the corruption) was subjected to. Read the full column in Business Day
