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| So wie is Raymond Suttner? [boodskap #118110] |
Di, 08 Julie 2008 16:04 |
Ferdi
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Raymond Suttner was voor 1994 'n leier in die UDF, SAKP en ANC. Hy was
ook 'n regsprofessor by Wits. Hy is onder meer in die 70/80"s deur die
Veiligheidspolisie gemartel.
As daar ANC blou bloed is, is hy een van hulle.
Hier is wat hy vanoggend in die Business Day geskryf het:
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Where are the alternatives to these harmful voices?
Raymond Suttner
WHEN Gwede Mantashe, who holds the key African National Congress (ANC)
position of secretary-general, attacked the Constitutional Court and
associated it with counterrevolutionary forces aiming to destroy ANC
president Jacob Zuma, he gave us a glimpse of what many already
feared.
Mantashe has been one of the less-strident voices in the new
leadership, and his decades of experience have shown in his attempts
to understand the public and the ANC base that goes beyond, and in
many cases has deep misgivings about, a Zuma presidency.
I spent a great deal of my life as an academic writing attacks on the
judiciary operating within the apartheid constitution. When the ANC
achieved the 1994 democratic breakthrough, it set in place not only a
new constitution, but also a Constitutional Court.
There are obviously problems with any notion of neutrality, especially
those that lawyers and courts tend to ascribe to themselves. But there
is also a need for something to stand above the ruling organisation
and, in SA's case, we have a very advanced constitution and a
Constitutional Court whose rulings are sometimes not what the ANC
would want.
This may be because of the preponderance of judges with one or another
background or political inclination, which affects their legal
insights. But these are factors that are built into any judiciary, and
the question is whether the advantages of having a judiciary  which,
as with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, sometimes makes
findings the ruling organisation does not like  is outweighed by
considerations that are deemed to be necessary by the ruling
organisation.
A Constitutional Court, like the constitution itself and unlike the
apartheid judiciary, reinforces values above any organisational
consideration and creates broad democratic confidence.
When the ANC decided to establish the truth commission and the court,
it understood that some decisions or findings would be contrary to
what the ANC knew (in the case of the commission) or believed should
be decided (in the case of the court). But it considered these bodies
necessary for healing (the commission), and for legitimacy (the
court).
The ANC leadership has until now appreciated that abiding by
Constitutional Court decisions has instilled public confidence in the
democratic system. Its respect as the strongest political force is
essential for stable democratic order. This does not preclude
criticism of decisions or individual judges or judgments, which are
not the same as impugning the integrity of the institution. Surely
someone as experienced as Mantashe ought to know that? Surely he
realises that few outside of the Zuma inner circle will buy his idea
that the judges are part of the plot against their leader?
Personally, I sought and gained nothing from the Mbeki presidency  or
should I say the MbekiZuma presidency for, until his dismissal, the
Mbeki vision was simultaneously a Zuma project. One never heard a word
in support of the poor emanating from Zuma, nor attempts to make the
ANC government more people-driven, nor similar sentiments that might
give credence to claims by South African Communist Party (SACP) and
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) leaders that Zuma's
victory was a victory for the left, or a democratic gain.
In truth no programme, linked to any plot, was defeated at Polokwane.
It was a battle for loot, between those who sought to benefit from
continued Mbeki rule and those who had been ditched by Mbeki or sought
to benefit from a Zuma presidency. There was no programmatic
difference; or what left inflection the Zuma election platform may
have had was deflected by pictures of the Cosatu and SACP leaders
dogging his heels to share the applause that greeted Zuma the
ÂdelivererÂ.
What Mantashe and other members of the Zuma leadership have had to
confront is that the man they protect and fall under stands more
disgraced than any other ANC president in history. We can recall how
JS Moroka betrayed his comrades after the Defiance Campaign and other
moments of shame. But no ANC leader has been charged with rape and
escaped conviction on such sexist grounds. No leader has previously
stood trial for such a range of corrupt practices, and had to engage
in such protracted efforts to prevent evidence being heard.
Despite not supporting the desirability of a Zuma's presidency, I,
like many others, believe the ANC is bigger than any individual and
that we owe it our support and assistance to try to reverse some of
the setbacks and recover some of its legacy.
Now that task is made inordinately difficult, with ANC and Communist
Youth League figures and adult leaders throwing around the word
ÂrevolutionÂ. In reality, some of these people were nowhere near the
battlefield when danger was present. The only battlefield they know is
that for loot, and they believe they can gain this through devaluing
the words revolution and counter-revolution.
Where do we go from here? Are the views of Mantashe, Julius Malema ,
Blade Nzimande, Zwelinzima Vavi and Zuma himself those of the whole of
the ANC, SACP and Cosatu and, if not, where are the other people in
this leadership? Do they approve of the SACP displacing the police in
investigating a fraud allegation against their general secretary and
purging those who made the claim? What has happened to analysis and
political understanding? There are some who claim to bear this mantle.
Where are they and where do they stand?
It is all very well to say that one must be inside to prevent the
worst excesses, but what has been prevented and what is there that is
still to come?
# Suttner is a former political prisoner and part of the ANC/SACP
national leadership. He is a professor at Unisa and the author of the
forthcoming book, The ANC Underground (Jacana)
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