Friday, November 10, 2006
The Star - Online
Angela Quintal
Jacob Zuma, the ANC Youth League and the Young Communist League should say sorry to Judge Hilary Squires, according to a top government official.
Government spokesperson Themba Maseko, who was replying to questions after a cabinet meeting this week, said: "Any unjustified, racially and ill-informed attacks on the judiciary are regrettable and unwelcome."
The cabinet had noted the judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal relating to Schabir Shaik and expressed its full confidence in the judiciary, as well as its unqualified respect for the rule of law.
Maseko singled out the attacks on Judge Squires as an example of what the cabinet was referring to.
The YCL and ANCYL are among those who labelled Judge Squires an apartheid judge, and an ex-Rhodesian cabinet minister, who was part of an alleged conspiracy against Zuma.
The ANC deputy president himself, in an interview last year, told the Mail & Guardian newspaper: "In 1963 I was sentenced to 10 years in prison by Justice Steyn. It was a political trial. I listened to Judge Squires and there was nothing different to what I heard 42 years ago in terms of the political judgment."
This was after Judge Squires had convicted Shaik for corruption and fraud and said there was a generally corrupt relationship between Zuma and his former financial adviser. His judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal this week, and Shaik began his 15-year jail sentence yesterday.
Maseko said: "You can't have a situation where a judgment is taken against you and then go criticising individual judges because they have taken a decision against you. Their job Â… is to uphold the law, irrespective of their race, religion or culture. They are entitled to perform their duties as defined in the constitution."
Asked whether Zuma and his supporters should apologise to Judge Squires, Maseko said: "The cabinet did not take a view on that matter.
"I would, as spokesperson, align myself to those who have made the call for those who continue to attack the individual judges to apologise and desist from making such statements against our judges."
The ANCYL and YCL earlier this week said they would not apologise for insulting Judge Squires. Neither ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama nor Zuma's lawyer Michael Hulley were available for comment.
Maseko added that a decision on whether to recharge Zuma for corruption was a matter for the National Prosecuting Authority and not the cabinet.