Solving things legally becomes 'too complicated': Zuma

President Jacob Zuma has once more criticised the judiciary, saying courts only deal with 'cold facts' but these affect 'warm bodies'.

Addressing the House of Traditional Leaders in Pretoria yesterday, Zuma said: "I’ll be very happy that we solve the African problems in the African way because if we solve them only legally they become too complicated. Law looks at one side only, they don’t look at any other thing.
"They deal with cold facts and I was complaining [about] that, but they’re dealing with warm bodies. That’s the contradiction."

Zuma advised traditional leaders to lodge land claims collectively, recommending that there should be one legal firm to lodge claims on behalf of communities.

"You cannot make [land] claims piecemeal as land was taken away. That is why I recommend that we should have one firm that will deal with all of them," he said.

Zuma said the land issue was a national issue.

"One traditional leader may not have enough to pay expensive lawyers and you might lose the land when you are not supposed to, but when the matter is collectively tackled then you might succeed," he said.

This article was first published by RDM