President Zuma to meet with Mogoeng and Mbete
President Jacob Zuma will meet with Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, Speaker Baleka Mbete and the head of the National Council of Provinces Thandi Modise on Tuesday to strengthen co-operation between the three arms of state, the presidency said.
“The meeting of the arms of the state is aimed at further strengthening working relations and cooperation,” his office said on Monday.
Presidential spokesman Bongani Majola said the meeting was a follow up to one between the judiciary and the president in late August and critical because “there have been perceptions and accusations that one is encroaching on the terrain of the other.
“So we need this to ensure that the separation of powers is intact in our democracy.”
Zuma met with the country’s top judges in August at the request of Mogoeng who had warned of “the dangers of the repeated and unfounded criticism of the judiciary”.
At the close of that meeting, the president said there had been an agreement that government and the judiciary would “exercise care and caution with regards to public statements and pronouncements criticising one another”.
The meeting came two months after the judge president of the Gauteng division, Judge Dunston Mlambo, berated government for violating a court order and the law by allowing Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, to leave South Africa after an African Union summit. - ANA