Despite challenges judiciary needs to be steadfast in upholding rule of law
SA has shown resilient commitment to the rule of law in recent years. The country’s strong legal institutions, particularly the former public protector, have often been hailed as a saving grace in a country that is trying to woo investors and rating agencies ahead of the country’s sovereign credit ratings update by Moody’s in late November and Fitch and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) in early December. At the end of March, in a unanimous and important judgment, the Constitutional Court upheld a report by the then public protector, Thuli Madonsela, in which she had directed President Jacob Zuma personally to repay the state a portion of the R246m improperly spent on amenities at his Nkandla private residence in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The court declared that the president had contravened the Constitution by failing to comply with Madonsela’s directions, and that Parliament had also acted unconstitutionally by purportedly absolving the president from doing so. This judgment reaffirmed the Const...
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