Tourism minister and presidential hopeful Lindiwe Sisulu has hit back at Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola, who had criticised her stance on the Constitution and the rule of law.
Sisulu had initially opened up a controversy in an article which took particular issue with the law and for the supposed ‘mentally colonised’ attitudes of senior judges. Lamola challenged her on this, defending the Constitution and calling for, among other things, better implementation of policies.
In a response published on Sunday on Independent Online she wrote:
‘You have taken the unusual step of addressing me, a colleague, in an open letter, something unheard-of in the tradition of our movement, as far as I know. This appears alarming since it seems to be a follow-up of the public statement issued by your department, which was all part of an equally unusual and disturbingly vicious public castigation of me since my attempt to draw public attention to one of the most fundamental issues South Africans should be discussing.’
She went on to say that the Constitution needed to be seen in context. ‘It does set high standards for our democratic life together. But it is not Holy Scripture.’
She added that it did not encompass the experience of ‘the poor, the disenfranchised, the marginalised, and the excluded.’