(Bloomberg) --

President Cyril Ramaphosa urged South Africans to safeguard against attacks on the independence and integrity of the judiciary, a week after one of his cabinet ministers criticized the nation’s top judges as “mentally colonized.”

“We need to protect our Constitution, our democratic state and the electoral process from anyone who wants to weaken our democracy and deny the South African people of their hard-won freedom,” Ramaphosa said in his weekly statement.

The statement is his first response to Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s attacks on the judiciary in a series of opinion articles published since Jan 7. It follows criticism of Sisulu by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola at the weekend and Minister in the President Mondli Gungubele last week.

 

Sisulu said the judiciary is not doing enough to address the legacies of apartheid under the current current constitution. Supporters of Ramaphosa have interpreted the minister’s statements as a step toward positioning herself to run against the president when the ruling African National Congress elects its leaders at the end of this year. 

The scrutiny of the judiciary was heightened when acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo on Jan. 4 published the first part of a report about an inquiry into corruption under former President Jacob Zuma. The findings put Zuma at the center of a looting spree at state companies and proposed several of his allies be investigated for graft or fraud.

 

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