No Courts, No Commissions of Enquiry- No Action

Our courts have recently been accused of judicial overreach and extensive involvement in political matters. In their defence, they get involve only when they get involved. They preside only over cases reported to them and make rulings based on information presented in court.

We have gotten used to being led by our courts and commissions of enquiry. Even our president has hinted a couple of times in parliament that he can’t take action on some of the issues pending the court process. The question is how do we always end up in court and establishing commissions of enquiry? Such a scenario occurs in the absence of leadership. According to our leaders, if the court hasn’t ruled on it then there’s no evidence to take action.

We spent years talking about Nkandla and nothing was done about it until it was reported to the Public Protector. The Gupta saga has been going on long before the State of Capture Report. The SASSA crisis was known long before it’s second court appearance, after the department’s failure to implement the initial court recommendations.

Even after the courts have provided answers on what went wrong and what should be done, our leaders continue to look the other way. It comes as no surprise to hear the ruling party accusing the courts of being biased because courts are ruling over matters that were deliberated ignored. It’s matters where the government intended to take no action against people involved.

If every problem has to be solved in the court of law, then we don’t need a president for he has no leadership role to play. We can’t have a president whose only job is to implement court recommendations.

Our president is decisive only when his personal interests are under threat. Other than that, when it comes to issues of public interest, he’s happy for the courts and commissions of enquiry to do his job while he claims no knowledge of the problems the courts and commissions are dealing with.

Written by Lufuno Makungo

@LMwonder