Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and President Jacob Zuma — PICTURE: ELMOND JIYANE Last week’s constitutional court ruling against President Jacob Zuma represents a crisis for the country. This is not because, as has been widely held, one man has fallen foul of the law.The real crisis is that two powerful forces have collided. Constitutional democracy has, for the first time, engaged a new enemy — Zuma’s shadow security state, a force which has been quietly but relentlessly preparing itself for battle for almost a decade.Until last week, Zuma’s shadow machinery co-existed uneasily in its host, the constitutional democracy that was born in 1994. The judgment delivered by chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng changed that and now there is a fight to the end.At the heart of the shadow state is Zuma, a president whose relentless focus is the growth and retention of his political power, at the expense, if necessary, of the law and the basic tenets of constitutionalism.It was ushered into existence ...
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