Johannesburg – Former president Jacob Zuma had hardly spent one night in prison for contempt of court, and some people were already arguing that he should be given a presidential pardon.
That is an absurdity that should not happen.
President Cyril Ramaphosa would do well to think through the moral and political considerations against exercising his constitutional prerogative to give legal discount to a recalcitrant constitutional delinquent.
The first thing that is disturbing about even posing the presidential pardon question is that the timing is inappropriate.
When someone has broken the law, not acknowledged the seriousness and impact of what they did, and not yet started their sentence, it is wrongheaded to immediately talk of an early exit from prison.
To even go there so soon is to undermine the judgment by Judge Sisi Khampepe that sent Zuma to prison in the first place.
That landmark judgment was at pains to detail the extent to which Zuma had trampled on the principle of constitutional authority.
What he did was not minor.
The very administration of justice is dependent on respect for the authority of the judiciary. Hasty talk of presidential pardons simply reveals a basic lack of appreciation of the seriousness of contempt of court.
Second, Ramaphosa himself has sworn to uphold the constitution.
Part of what that means is that he should safeguard the values and principles enshrined in the constitution.
Zuma has now twice defied the authority of the Constitutional Court.
Not only did he do so when he refused to go and answer questions at the state capture inquiry when directed to do so by the Constitutional Court, but he again disrespected the authority of the same court last Sunday evening by ignoring a valid court order that he should hand himself over to correctional services.
In other words, Zuma is now a habitual anti-constitutionalist.
He was effectively a fugitive from the law since Monday and was belatedly committed to prison on Wednesday evening.
Ramaphosa should think long and hard about the symbolism attached to giving prison discount to such a figure.
It would be sending the message to society that lawbreaking, including disrespecting the decisions of the apex court, is acceptable.
That would taint Ramaphosa as someone who himself was a key negotiator of the constitutional text.
It would be morally and politically odious for someone who worked hard to get the Codesa talks to end in the design of a nascent constitutional democracy to now be undermining that work by giving a reprieve to Zuma, who is happy to piss on the constitution for his own benefit and dodgy associates.
We should also remember what the state capture inquiry is ultimately about. It really is about the right to truth.
You and I are entitled to know who had looted from the South African coffers and hollowed out the state.
We must not lose sight of that core legal purpose of the commission. Zuma, as someone who held the highest office in the land, has plenty of questions to answer so that we can all know the full truth about the destruction of our state.
He is in prison because he does not want to be held accountable. When we talk of “contempt of court”, we are only giving a partial and legalistic account of how Zuma had ended up in jail.
But, actually, when we widen our analysis to situate the legal issues within their rightful political context, then a more disturbing and basic truth jumps out at us.
Zuma always runs away from accountability. That is why he keeps fighting marginal procedural battles in the corruption case to stave off having his day in court on the nexus corruption charges.
The same is true of his fear of Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
Zuma is simply scared that he may end up unintentionally revealing the extent to which he was not a passive victim of the Guptas but possibly an active enabler and fellow traveller in the shadowy world of grand-scale corruption.
So, if Ramaphosa wanted to pardon Zuma he should first ask himself: “Do I want to
pardon someone who is in prison because he refuses to be held accountable for his
political actions?’
Also read:
Jacob Zuma to remain behind bars after court dismisses his application
Ramaphosa calls for calm in KZN
Click here for more analysis from today’s paper on the Zuma matter.
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