South Africa minister takes aim at judiciary after state capture probe

Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is at the centre of an ongoing political controversy in South Africa for a recent piece where she questions the benefits of the country’s justice system and suggests that the judges are ‘mentally colonised’. Her criticism was so weighty that the acting chief justice Raymond Zondo summoned a press conference on Wednesday to respond to her claims. It puts more pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa to strengthen the rule of law by implementing a newly released report on state capture. But this obligation will be pursued moderately while the president conserves political resources to mount a campaign for re-election as African National Congress (ANC) president this year.

Significance – Timing and political stock

Sisulu’s commentary should be viewed in the context of a state capture probe led by Zondo into the Jacob Zuma administration (2009 to 2018). Zondo released the first part of his report on 4 January with findings that implicate Zuma and his ANC associates. This probe and Zuma’s imprisonment for contempt stoked political tension in the country last year and continue to do so now. This is evidenced by a lone hammer attack on the Constitutional Court building this month. Further, the Zondo inquiry has increasingly fractured the ANC and antagonised President Ramaphosa’s rivals such as Sisulu, who is in a faction associated with Zuma and seems poised to run against Ramaphosa for the ANC presidency when the party holds its next elective conference in December.

The Zondo report is a delicate matter in the race to the conference because Ramaphosa is at least morally obliged to act on the recommendations before then – but he must weigh the acceptability of any actions within his party. For instance, Zondo has proposed the formation of a new anti-corruption agency that will be outside the president’s control. Unlike the Hawks and the National Prosecution Authority whose chief executives are appointed by the president, Zondo’s proposed agency would be governed by a council to be appointed by a panel. This panel would comprise the chief justice, auditor-general and the finance minister while a public process would precede appointments to the council – substantially shielding the agency from the ANC’s influence.[1]

However, Ramaphosa has limited capital to act on such proposals or check opposition against the judiciary from his own party. For the first time ever, the ANC gained less than 50% of total votes in municipal elections held last November amid high voter apathy. The poll results not only point to disillusionment among ANC voters, but they also suggest that Ramaphosa’s anti-corruption measures lack popular backing within his party given the impact on party cohesion. To illustrate, we note the blowback from the suspension of the ANC secretary-general ‘Ace’ Magashule for alleged corruption and the riots in the party’s biggest base KwaZulu-Natal last year (See: South Africa unrest sets back Ramaphosa’s bid to reorient ANC).

It now appears that Ramaphosa is struggling to rally his own allies. For example, his minerals minister and ANC chair Gwede Mantashe said this week that the ANC ‘takes no issue’ with Sisulu’s comments on the judiciary and that the party should apply a political solution to the findings in the Zondo report (Note: Mantashe is among those implicated in this report). Meanwhile, the president’s allies who lead key provinces such as Eastern Cape and Limpopo face stiff opposition and some have been ousted in regional elective conferences that have been held so far.

Outlook – Reforms deferred

Ramaphosa has described the Zondo report as ‘a defining moment in our country’s effort to definitively end the era of state capture’, but the timing of its release and the president’s unsteady footing in the ruling party leadership complicate the steps required to decisively tackle public sector corruption. Zondo will submit the remaining parts of his report to Ramaphosa in February and the president will write to parliament in June to say how he intends to apply Zondo’s recommendations. Campaigns for the ANC elective conference will have begun by this time and so Ramaphosa will likely defer concrete plans for reform until new ANC leaders have been elected. The ruling party’s readiness to rebuild weakened institutions is currently in doubt, but two factors for considering the likelihood of change will be the depth of Ramaphosa’s implementation plan and the party’s response as demonstrated by the outcome of the elective conference.

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[1] Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture Report Part 1 (January 2022). Government of South Africa.

Photo: Raymond Zondo, eNCA (eNews Channel Africa)

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