Sisulu consults with legal team following Justice Zondo’s rebuke to comments on judiciary

Tourism Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, says she is in consultations with her legal team after noting Acting Chief Justice, Raymond Zondo’s response to an article in which she attacked the judiciary and the Constitution.

Speaking in a media briefing on Wednesday, Zondo said Sisulu had insulted the judiciary without any analysis or facts.

In the article titled “Hi Mzansi, have we seen justice?”, Sisulu questioned the moral standing of the country’s judges.

Zondo says he’s horrified by Sisulu’s article, given her senior role in government.

However, he has emphasised that judges will continue to do their work in accordance with their oath of office.

In the video below, Zondo responds to Sisulu:

“In bad faith”

Political analyst Ongama Mtimka says South Africans will begin to ask whether some politicians plan to leave a legacy of strengthening or weakening democracy in their process of campaigning.

In her article, Sisulu referred to unnamed black judges as mentally colonised Africans who had settled for the mindset of those who had dispossessed their ancestors.

Mtimka says this is deeply worrying.

“When we continue to allow politicians in powerful positions to have a free rein on the institutional integrity with substance, then we are allowing ourselves to get on very dangerous terrain. So, she must campaign all she wants. The writing is quite good and she quotes my favourite economist, but it’s in bad faith as far as I’m concerned.”

EFF slams Zondo

Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has slammed Zondo for holding a media conference to respond to the Tourism Minister.

The says party Zondo’s response is misguided and misplaced and only serves to prejudice Sisulu and those who hold similar views.