Jacob Zuma and elements of the ANC are intent on destabilising South Africa

The heads of churches of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) met on 25 February 2021 and expressed alarm and concern at the manner in which a certain sector of our society appears to sit lightly on the South African constitutional order.

They respect the Constitution only on terms favourable to their immediate interests. We wish to reaffirm that the law of the land, the pinnacle of which is the Constitution, should always claim its place of honour, and not be swayed by defiance and prevarication which seek to replace the rule of law.

As we read the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3), we see indications across the body politic that there are some who stand for their short-term individual and personal interests at the express expense of the South African nation and the institutions designed to equitably serve the interests of all South Africans over time.

We wish to make it known to all who would undermine and destabilise the South African constitutional order that this is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. Nobody, but nobody, is and will be treated as above the other 60 million South Africans in the application of the law. The rule of law must be predictable and it must be even-handed and equitable. Anyone with a just cause concerning the unjust application of the law must do so within the law and not to spite the law, and thereby destabilise society.

Recently the SACC expressed “deep concern about the possible implications of the declared decision by former President Jacob Zuma not to cooperate with, and to turn his back on the processes of the Zondo Commission”. We also sounded the alarm on Mr Zuma’s language of referring to the South African law, as “their law”, presumably referring to those with whom he disagrees.

We warned that this was laying a foundation for a movement of people who support Mr Zuma outside the walls of the law of the land, and that this might lead to people being killed.

As it now stands, Mr Zuma’s actions of refusing to come before the Zondo Commission have given other individuals licence to do the same. In his capacity with the official title of Former President, and all the regulatory provisions and responsibilities that go with that title, Mr Zuma is a constitutional being. As we said at the time, referencing his constitutional status as a former president, “In this regard alone, Mr Zuma cannot be outside the law and make it ‘their law’; for nobody is above the law of the land.”

Therefore, even for Mr Zuma, and maybe precisely because it is him — a former president and a constitutional being, he cannot do anything that points the direction outside the rule of law. For example, to encourage the posting outside his home of a paramilitary guard that has no legal status and is not regulated anywhere in the law of the land is in itself treading in the domain of lawlessness.

Might there also be arms caches that relate to paramilitary units, maybe in different parts of the country even? Might there be people receiving illegal military-style training that society should worry about?

The word of Prophet Zechariah persuades differently: “These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the Lord.” (Zechariah 8:16-17)

The trust of South Africans given at elections is sacred, and we need the African National Congress in government to reassure South Africa that as a party they wholeheartedly support and defend the Constitution and its institutions, including the judiciary that has repeatedly been attacked publicly without evidence of wrongdoing adduced. These are the makings of institutional destabilisation.