In a firm letter addressed to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) on Friday, 12 March 2021, the President of Liberty Fighters Network (LFN), Reyno De Beer, accused the regulatory body of religious discrimination and gave it until Wednesday, 17 March 2021, to retract all references made to religion in it’s decision involving Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng or face a challenge in the Equality Court.

“The approach followed by Mojapelo J in formulating his decision was to simulate a judgment. In doing so, the learned judge was not mindful that hardly any member of the public, as laypersons, would be able follow the legal jargon contained in his decision. It follows that the reasonable man would, in consequence, interpret the [JSC]’s administrative decision as being a judgment when, in fact, it is not,” De Beer wrote.

The judge not only opted to politicise the Christian scriptures referred to by the CJ; he completely ignored that the expression of religious beliefs very often carry political connotations. While same may be sometimes unfortunate, incorrect or controversial, they remain expressions of belief. Any spoken word may evoke criticism, rightly or wrongly, yet it cannot become the “involvement” as envisaged in the Code of Judicial Conduct. In this context, LFN notes that the learned judge omitted to provide his definition or interpretation of the term “involvement”.

If the administration officer, Mojapelo J, would have, in fact, taken the time to read the references in the Bible as quoted by the CJ, he would undoubtedly have ascertained that those references were reaching out to both the Palestinian and the Jewish people alike who had been trapped within the politicising of a religious dispute.

If it was the intention of the JSC to conduct an inquiry into the CJ’s alleged breach of the Code, such inquiry should never have concluded that the stated religious principles could be in contravention of the Doctrine of Separation of Powers. Compelling a “guilty party” to apologise for his or her religious beliefs is not only discriminatory towards, in this case, the Christian religion but also encourages animosities between religions, and specifically, religions of the Abrahamic faith.

LFN shall immediately proceed to challenge the JSC’s decision in the Equality Court in the event it refuses to retract all connotations, suggesting that the religious remarks were implicating an involvement in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

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After 10 months of exhaustive court battles, Liberty Fighters Network (LFN) and Minister Dlamini-Zuma will finally settle their score in the Constitutional Court. Yesterday, 3 March 2021, LFN lodged its Application for Leave to Appeal with this Court, after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismissed it’s bid last month to get the National State of Disaster (NSD) declared as unconstitutional and invalid.

This follows the famous judgment by Justice Norman Davis, delivered on 2 June 2020, when he declared most of the Disaster Management Regulations as a set not complying with our country’s Constitution, but then also ruled that he found the declaration of the NSD as rational.

While the appeal of the Minister challenging the High Court’s order against her fatally flawed Regulations are yet to be heard by the SCA, two of its Judges, Ponnan and Nicholls JJA, were of the view that LFN and its President Reyno De Beer may not lodge a cross-appeal challenging the NSD in Bloemfontein too.

That SCA judgment provided LFN and De Beer with their long awaited opportunity to take the NSD to the Constitutional Court. Although the Democratic Alliance, a group of Capetonian students and a handful of others attempted to get direct access to the Constitutional Court – some with rather ludicrous arguments – LFN and De Beer are the only ones to have reached the apex Court by correctly following the full prescribed route in challenging various aspects of the NSD.

“Many people have asked me why we didn’t go straight to the Constitutional Court, ” De Beer said. “We then simply had to show them that all those who tried to take shortcuts in their cases were dismissed for the simple reason that it was not in the interest of justice to have heard those matters directly by the Constitutional Court. It is not a good idea to submit yourself to a process and then not follow the rules prescribed by that process. It’s just not how it works.” The Minister is likely to oppose the application. Within about two weeks, the country will know whether the NSD will be seized for hearing by the Constitutional Court.

Please consider making a voluntary donation of your choice in supporting our campaign to invest in your children’s future. LFN is the ONLY organisation that continuously opposes the Lockdown in our Courts and has pending matters before both the Constitutional Court the Supreme Court of Appeal…

Please consider making a voluntary donation to LFN through Mobipaid…

OR

Direct bank deposit to: Liberty Fighters Network, Capitec (Branch: 470010 / Swift: CABLZAJJ), Savings Acc. No. 1531241784