Zuma- Complicit in Genocide?

The actions of President Jacob Zuma and his Cabinet in attempting to grant immunity to the President of Sudan in his attempt to escape arrest under a Warrant issued by the International Criminal Court on a charge of having committed genocide by ordering the actions that killed 300 000 of his countrymen, is a clear indication of their support of an internationally-wanted criminal.  Their actions in having failed to take the necessary steps to prevent his escape from justice is a breach of their duties under the Treaty of Rome, the establishment of which South Africa supported at a time when we all believed in rightness and justice, a breach of the law ratifying South Africa’s signature to that treaty, a breach of international law, a breach of the Constitution, and a breach of the binding judgment of the High Court.  It is a slap in the face of the international community, and a flagrant contravention of a United Nations Security Council Resolution.

It has been clear for years that Jacob Zuma is an outlaw President.  He has repeatedly ignored the Orders of the High Court and of a Chapter Nine institution, the Public Protector, which was set up in the Constitution to protect the nation against the criminal and otherwise illegal activities of the Executive.  His co-opting of his Cabinet colleagues to support these activities are a disgrace for the nation, and a clear statement of the collapse of the rule of law in South Africa.  It is also a clear description of the sort of people we have in the highest office.  Zuma’s actions in regard to the President of Sudan constitute an undeniable case for his immediate removal from office.  What President Richard Nixon did at Watergate is a tiny fraction of what Zuma has done.

The crimes which the President of Sudan is accused are not the petty theft of a quarter of a billion Rand of public money to build his own house, or the ignoring of the binding findings of constitutionally-constituted bodies or Courts of Law.  They are the cold-blooded murder of a large part of the population of his country, a crime committed in his clambering to gain the power and wealth of the office he now holds by force, violence and deceit.

The association of people like the President of Sudan, the President of Zimbabwe and the President of South Africa tells any who doubt, that the African Union is a Buddy’s Club dedicated to the protection of its members.  The African Union, by adopting the notion that a Head of State is above the law of any country, their own included, as well as above important and binding treaties such as the Treaty of Rome, has admitted that it does not consider its prime function to be the protection of the citizens of it member nations, but the maintenance in power of the evil ad criminal Presidents who get together to discuss how best to exploit their nations.  No sane person can believe that the African Union deserves any respect, as long as the presidents mentioned above are part of it, and certainly not while Robert Mugabe remains the President of the organization.

What should come out of this fiasco?

The first result should, and probably will be the castigation of South Africa as an outlaw State.  This should go so far as to have sanctions instituted against the country.  The allowing free of the Sudanese President should be seen as a clear notification to the world that South Africa is a State that, at least, supports and condones terrorism and genocide, that turns a blind eye to imperative legal commitments to bodies that it originally supported.  The sanctions could well take the form of a prohibition on international travel by Zuma and his Cabinet henchmen.  It may extend to financial and trade sanctions against the country.  Within South Africa, these actions should promote a vote of no confidence in the President and the people who have brought this international opprobrium on the country.  It should precipitate criminal actions for contempt of Court against Zuma, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister of Defence and several other senior and junior officials for their part in letting this criminal go free.  It should bring local, as well as international criminal actions against Zuma and his colleague for their role in the matter.  And it should bring about the downfall of the ANC, which has shown convincingly it scorn for the laws of the country, and of its citizens.

The results of the day’s activities will redound to South Africa’s detriment for years to come.  They will be a turning point for South Africa, second only to the fall of the Apartheid Government.  They will be felt by every citizen of the country, and they will be disastrous for the land of Nelson Mandela, the man who might well go down in history as the last honest President of this benighted land.