ANC sets its sights on the judiciary

CHARLES MOLELE & ANDISIWE MAKINANA

Mail & Guardian, Feb 17 2012

Just four months before its policy conference, the ANC is making it clear that it intends to push for a radical transformation of the judiciary. President Jacob Zuma this week reignited the controversy over his attitude to the constitutionally enshrined power of courts to review executive decisions, telling The Star "we don't want to review the Constitutional Court, we want to review its powers". He added that judges were not "special people" and said that split and dissenting judgments undermined the court's authority.

The government and Zuma himself have since attempted to back-pedal on these remarks saying they had to be understood in their proper context.

But amid the mixed messages, it is clear that the ANC plans to go beyond its existing policy positions that the Constitutional Court be affirmed as the apex of the legal system and that the demographic transformation of the Bench must be quicker. Click here to read more