Zuma’s remission process was 'very much in line with the constitution' - says Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday said granting special remission to former President Jacob Zuma and others was not in contravention of the constitution.

Ramaphosa was answering a question put to him by DA leader John Steenhuisen in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Steenhuisen told Ramaphosa that the best way to defend the judiciary was to uphold the rule of law and implement its findings.

He put it to the president that: "No one has done more to undermine the rule of law than you and the ANC. In fact, you have twisted yourselves into a pretzel to avoid accountability, but last month you have gone a new low when you released Jacob Zuma after he spent less than two hours in prison for gross contempt of court because he showed the middle finger to the rule of law and the chief justice."

Steenhuisen said Zuma was released in the most "disingenuous" way "under the guise of special remission" and accused the president of putting his political party ahead of South Africans.

Responding, Ramaphosa said: "Our constitution is very clear in terms of the rules it sets out for processes such as granting pardon, remission and even in this instance when we granted the remission to 9, 000 people who had been sentenced.

"It was not in contravention of our constitution, it was very much in line with what our constitution says," said Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa had been answering questions on the judiciary when Steenhuisen asked about Zuma.

He confirmed that the executive and the judiciary were scheduled to meet to discuss how best to address administrative work that impede the latter from executing its work.

"The issues of the appointments and reliance on the judiciary for certain appointments is a matter that we are going to discuss... The executive has a very healthy relationship with the judiciary and whenever there are issues, we are able to meet for administrative processes.

"The ministry of justice and correctional services does interface with the judiciary at close range and of course, there are various other proposals that are on the table to ensure that the judiciary does have maximum support in the execution of its own work and has the requisite independence to be able to execute its work."

All shall be well between the executive and the judiciary, said Ramaphosa, adding that the "executive has no wish to interfere with the judiciary".

"Our overriding wish is for the judiciary to continue doing its work in whatever way. This is something we find sacrosanct and irrevocable on our side the support that we should give on our side," said Ramaphosa.

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