Judiciary Is Not Responsible For Justice On Its Own

GOOD speech by Brett Herron,
GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament

Note: This is the speech that was delivered by GOOD Secretary-General and Member of Parliament, Brett Herron during today’s Parliamentary Budget Vote on the Office of the Chief Justice.*

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

Those words, expressed by escaped slave and public intellectual Frederick Douglass nearly 200 years ago, were as applicable to the US, then, as they are to South Africa today.

Justice does not exist in books or statutes, alone. It is not a theoretical concept, nor should it be mysterious… nor honed in Stalingrad. For people to believe in the fairness of a State, in its integrity, in equal rights, justice must be seen to be done.

For justice to be seen to be done is dependant not on judges, alone, but also – arguably, more so – on the integrity of the criminal justice system as a whole, including its investigative and prosecutorial arms.

Judgements can be appealed, which is a public process. But, for good reasons, the decisions made by police and prosecutors before cases reach court – or don’t – are made behind closed doors.

The integrity of the judiciary is therefore indelibly linked to the integrity of the processes that underpin it.

We cannot talk of justice being done in South Africa if the NPA receives political instructions not to prosecute apartheid war criminals, for example.

We cannot talk of justice being seen to be done when detailed knowledge of State Capture has been in the public domain for more than five years but virtually none of the perpetrators have been charged and brought to court.

We cannot talk of justice when those cases that are enrolled are beset by delays, postponements, lack of co-ordination between prosecutors and police, and incompetence.

That is not justice. It is what some eminent jurists have termed “lawfare”.

We have a constitutional order that is globally admired, but also a combination of red tape, political interference and systemic indecisiveness that plagues our system of justice.

The quicksand we are in is epitomised by the legal battles of former President Zuma. Despite years of allegations, investigations and attempted prosecutions, the ability of skilled lawyers to manipulate the system is self-evident.

Being innocent until proven guilty is a foundation stone of justice. But the foundations become shaky when alleged criminals have the means to delay the implementation of justice and therefore retain their innocence – despite the existence of piles of evidence in the public domain that they are guilty of heinous crimes.

As we fiddle around the edges the culture of criminal impunity in the country gathers momentum, to all of our detriment.

Among the greatest weapons we have to fix this is an Office of the Chief Justice being seen to be playing a leading role in the administration of justice, independent of political interference.

To be seen to be playing this role it is dependent on vigorous, competent and independent investigators and prosecutors.