SA has reached a terrible stage in its democracy where both the executive and Parliament have failed and where the courts try to hold each of these arms of government in check‚ former finance minister Trevor Manuel said on Thursday. Delivering the annual Neil Aggett Memorial Lecture at independent Grahamstown school, Kingswood College‚ Manuel warned that SA faced a major problem when its courts proclaimed that not even the head of state understood his oath of office. Manuel was referring to the Constitutional Court finding that both President Jacob Zuma and Parliament had failed to uphold the Constitution when they had not defended or upheld the authority of then-public protector Thuli Madonsela. Manuel said while the courts could hold the two arms of government in check‚ they could not lead. They could only respond to requests from those who chose to litigate. "Leadership is meant to come from the executive‚ overseen by the legislature. Those two arms have failed. They fail to even...
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