Johannesburg - Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has warned against selective condemnation of wrongdoing based on kinship, and insisted that all transgressions required consistent and equal disapproval.
Justice Zondo was speaking at the launch of retired Gauteng High Court Judge President Bernard Ngoepe’s book, Rich Pickings out of the Past, on Wednesday night.
”I’ve known Judge Ngoepe to be somebody who sticks to what is right, no matter who you are. When you are wrong, you are wrong. When you are right, you are right,” he said.
According to Justice Zondo, this is one of the lessons that Judge Ngoepe mentions in his book, although not in relation to him.
”But one of the themes is that we have got to stand for what is right, and we have got to stand for what is right irrespective of the circumstances and irrespective of the personalities,” the country’s top judge said.
Justice Zondo continued: “One of the biggest challenges that I think we have in our country is that when (ENSAfrica chairperson) Professor (Michael) Katz does something wrong, and I am his friend, I will not see what he has done as wrong I will see it as right, but when Judge Ngoepe does something wrong, if he is not my friend, it’s wrong”.
Africa's largest law firm ENSAfrica hosted the book launch.
Justice Zondo explained that this principle can be applied to many things that the country has and is doing.
”We have got to change that. Something that is wrong does not become right just because it’s done by my friend. Something that is right does not become wrong just because it’s my enemy who has done it.
Even my worst enemy, if he is right, I must stand up and say he is right, this time. And my best friend, if he is wrong, I must be able to say he is wrong,” added Justice Zondo.
He also expressed his optimism that if this attitude was applied to many things, a lot would change in the country.
Justice Zondo described Judge Ngoepe as his friend, having known him for over 25 years.
”I have known him as somebody who will put his interests below those of society,” he said, adding that Judge Ngoepe has made a significant contribution to the transformation of the judiciary.
Judge Ngoepe, who was admitted as an attorney on June 16, 1976, was the first African candidate attorney to do articles at an Afrikaans law firm.
He said his motivation for writing the book was to deal with the fundamental root causes of “where we find ourselves”.
Judge Ngoepe was critical of the post-1994 dispensation, saying it failed to draw lessons from the past.
He said despite the support and goodwill after 1994, the state had failed.
As a consequence of this failure to learn lessons from the past, there was no water in the townships, mass unemployment, massive corruption and people going to bed without eating, according to Judge Ngoepe.
”If you want to rid the country of its ills, you must go and find the root causes,” he said.
Judge Ngoepe believes the country needs a paradigm shift and bringing back certain values in society as the law alone will not help to deal with the challenges it faces.
Royalties due to Judge Ngoepe from book sales will go to non-governmental organisations involved in efforts to fight diabetes, to which he lost two children.