Top judge defends judicial dissent after Zuma criticism

Speaking at the opening of the Constitutional Court Week conference hosted by the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung at the University of Cape Town, Yacoob said "the fact that judges differ with each other is not surprising, nor is it something to bemoan".

Earlier this year Zuma questioned in an interview the split decisions emanating from the Constitutional Court: "It is after experience that some of the decisions are not decisions that every other judge in the Constitutional Court agrees with... How could you say that [the] judgment is absolutely correct when the judges themselves have different views about it?" Both the government and members of the ruling ANC have been critical of the incursions of the judiciary into the political sphere.

Yacoob said that he would be "perturbed if the 11 judges of the Constitutional Court agreed with each other, judgment after judgment, year after year" as it would suggest "a court lacking in rigour and debate." Yacoob's statements come at a time when there is increasing public debate -- and consternation -- around the role and powers of the constitutional court. Last month, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe announced that the government would commission a study on how Constitutional Court rulings have impacted on the law, the state and the lives of citizens, Mail & Guardian reports.

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