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Mr Zuma has now gone too far. When he took office as president of our country he promised to be faithful to the Republic and to obey, observe, uphold and maintain the Constitution and all other law. Many witnesses have told the Zondo Commission that he and his associates have breached each of those promises. 

The country has watched Mr Zuma deploy clever tricks in his desperate attempt to avoid responding to these accusations. The Constitutional Court has now made it clear that the time for this ducking and diving is over. Instead of complying with its simple instruction, Mr Zuma has now resorted to his well-worn defence of victimhood wrapped in populism. 

This time, though, it is breathtaking in its presumption. Mr Zuma not only blames the dismissal of each of his lawyers’ evasive tactics on dishonest judges but seriously equates his fear of the witness stand with the heroic battle for freedom and justice of the late Robert Sobukwe. This is bare-faced effrontery, even for Mr Zuma’s spin-doctors.

Of course Mr Zuma’s conduct – ably aided and abetted throughout by his lawyers – has been in calculated defiance of the rule of law. If he persists in his refusal to respond to the mass of allegations, we look forward to the law taking its course.

Issued by Freedom Under Law