JACOB ZUMA court verdict Parole ruling ‘out of kilter with our Constitution’

• Published date: 19 December 2021
• Publication title: Sunday Tribune

Righteous anger at Judge Elias Matojane who seemed blinded by his hatred of Zuma is fully justified – he blatantly disregarded obvious and binding precedent from higher courts. In S v Botha (318 of 2003) (2004) ZASCA 51 (28 May 2004) the Supreme Court of Appeal, made the following observations regarding judicial restraint on matters of sentencing and parole

“The function of a sentencing court is to determine the term of imprisonment that a person, who has been convicted of an offence, should serve. A court has no control over the minimum period of the sentence that ought to be served by such a person. A recommendation of the kind encountered here is an undesirable incursion into the domain of another arm of the State, which is bound to cause tension between the judiciary and the executive.

“Courts are not entitled to prescribe to the executive branch of government how long a convicted person should be detained, thereby usurping the function of the executive.”

The principle was made even more explicit in another case, S v Mahlatsi 2013 (2) SACR 625 (GNP), at para 27, where the court held that: “Parole is the function of the executive arm of government, and the courts should steer well clear of interfering, unless authorised by law to do so.” That begs the question – why is Judge Matojane willfully blind to this principle?

For those who have been conditioned to hate Zuma with a passion, the ruling is a Christmas gift. For this lot, the spirit of Christmas is completely lost to them. This is what the effect of blinding hatred does to people. Beneficiaries of apartheid, with deep pockets, have no qualms in subjecting an ill 79-year-old citizen with a cluster of illnesses, to a very expensive lawsuit whose aim is to humiliate him and keep him in prison. The less said about the ululating blacks the better.

Suffice to say they represent the type of black person so eloquently described by Steve Biko. Biko wrote; “In the privacy of his toilet his face twists in silent condemnation of white society but brightens up in sheepish obedience as he comes out hurrying in response to his master's impatient call.”

What makes both the ruling and incarceration egregious is the fact that it stems from acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s refusal to recuse himself in a case where he was conflicted and where he had also become a witness. Forget the nonsense that Zondo was appointed by Zuma. Zondo ruled himself out from being an impartial adjudicator the minute he became...