de Klerk on the Judiciary
The FW de Klerk Foundation has released correspondence between the former president and current president Thabo Mbeki in which the former expresses her concerns about the encroachment on the independence of the country’s judiciary. Mbeki provided assurances to de Klerk that the government is committed to judicial independence and to upholding the constitution.
I have agreed with de Klerk over very little over the years. Although he deserves credit for his role in bringing apartheid to an end, even as he engaged in the negotiation process his government fomented violence and engaged in dirty tricks. His reticence to confront his part in the instability of the early 1990s and his unwillingness to participate in the TRC process except in the most perfunctory fashion served to undermine South Africa at a time when the TRC needed the support of prominent members of the National Party. It still galls me that de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela.
That said, his concerns about the judiciary are apt. And in coming months things will only get dicier as Jacob Zuma maintains his collision course with the country’s criminal courts. South Africa cannot afford for its judicial branch to become embroiled in, or at least compromised by, politics.