By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Justice minister Ronald Lamola fired the latest salvo in a war of words between those who want President Cyril Ramaphosa to remain the ruling party’s head and those who want him ousted in December at a conference where its members will vote on senior leadership position.
Lamola unleashed a verbal attack on Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who is seen as positioning herself as a leader of an opposing wing of the African National Congress.
He was responding to Sisulu’s recent criticism that the nation’s top judges are “mentally colonised.”
Lamola said her comments could not be passed off as debate but as an attack on “the very institution that is to uphold the constitution” and goes against the grain of everything that the ANC wanted to change before the nation’s first democratic elections in 1994.
Sisulu appears to be aligning herself with the wing of the party loyal to former President Jacob Zuma. That group has opposed Ramaphosa’s attempts to implement political and economic reforms and crack down on graft, which plagued Zuma’s time in office.
Key to Ramaphosa’s drive to renew the party after nine years of scandal under Zuma’s tenure is respect for the rule of law and the rebuilding of the institutions that underpin the constitution. Persistent attacks on the judiciary and a drumbeat of corruption scandals under Zuma undermined business confidence.
On Sunday, Sisulu, in an article again published on Independent Online, repremanding Lamola for penning an open letter challenging her remarks which have caused a public outcry.
“You have taken the unusual step of addressing me, a colleague, in an open letter, something unheard of in the tradition of our movement, as far as I know.
“This appears alarming since it seems to be a follow-up of the public statement issued by your department, which was all part of an equally unusual and disturbingly vicious public castigation of me since my attempt to draw public attention to one of the most fundamental issues South Africans should be discussing,” read the article credited to the minister.
She said the Constitution was a man-made and historically contextualised document.
“That contextualisation cannot escape the reality of Codesa 1 and 2 that defines the proverbial womb of the Constitution. In this sense, the Constitution makes for a ‘settlement agreement’.
“Concerning our laws and their interpretation, it certainly has supreme authority, and it is indeed a remarkable and impressively progressive document in many ways.
“It does set high standards for our democratic life together. But it is not holy Scripture. Rather than seeing it as an untouchable, irreproachable holy relic, I see it as a living document, evolving with our own development. As such, it is open to discussion, debate, and critique.”
She maintained that contrary to the views expressed by, in particular, acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo regarding her utterance as being ill-conceived and seemingly formulated without any facts, she said had spent a considerable amount of time pondering the topic.
While no one has formally announced the intention to run for party president in December, Ramaphosa is expected to seek a second term.