Advocate Dali Mpofu has spoken out against the recent public attack on his conduct at the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) interviews, saying that if he and others, “kept quiet” the entire judiciary could have been captured.
Mpofu broke his silence when he interacted with more than 2 000 listeners in a two-hour Twitter Space conversation hosted by #MrTshweuSpaces, a current affairs show, from 6.30am on Thursday.
Mpofu has been criticised for his conduct during the JSC interviews last week, with some groups calling for his removal from the JSC panel.
There was also a scathing opinion piece written and published by Media24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson on February 7. It referred to Mpofu as a “nincompoop” and “scoundrel”.
However, following Basson’s article, a group of 20 black lawyers and the National Association of Democratic Lawyers came out in defence of Mpofu and all-black professionals against the continuous “racist onslaught”.
In the early morning audio Twitter interaction, Mpofu told listeners not to worry about him as the issue dated from “coloniality”.
"Please people, do not worry about me. They've touched the wrong native. They have made a huge mistake. There's no way I can sell my soul and turn a blind eye to a blatant case of judicial capture.”
He said he was even prepared to die for the cause.
Mpofu said that he appreciated the support from the broader community and those in the legal fraternity.
“I think it's great. I think we should do that when one of us is attacked."
Speaking on the use of some of the language in Basson’s piece, Mpofu said those words were used to make sure people knew what a “good black” was. Words such as “thugs” and “barbaric” were meant to blunt the struggle against racism.
Mpofu spoke about the major outrage that erupted when he stated that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and his advocate, Michelle le Roux, must shut up during the State Capture Inquiry hearing in March last year.
He said the words “shut up” were considered more offensive than Basson’s name-calling and attack as the outrage was “far less” in comparison. That was indicative of “the white masters’ rules of engagement”.
“The biggest problem is our people who join in the attack. If the masters are silent, then we are, if they condemn it, then it's an outrage.
“If the rules of engagement are that we must hug and kiss and be nice, then we must accept that nothing will change.
“The masters will be like: ‘Oh you're so nice, not like those uncultured ones jumping and toyi-toying.’ You condemn that just to be liked. Those people are part of the problem.”
Mpofu said the highly publicised and killings of heroes such as Steve Biko were done to instil fear in the masses.
“And just like that when they killed our heroes… it was for that purpose of being lynched in public as a lesson to anyone else who wants to stand up to the masters.”
He refused to remain silent and allow the judiciary to be captured.
“What we did now was excellent. If we chose the person favoured by whiteness, we would have been praised as the best JSC and (black people) would have been finished. Our job is to make the comfortable uncomfortable and the uncomfortable comfortable, and we cannot do that by being nice.”
Talking about his on-the-ground approach during the Fees Must Fall movement, Mpofu said he and other black lawyers decided to “leave our air conditioned offices and go smell the teargas”.
“One part of the strategy is to isolate black professionals from the masses and we must resist that and be part of those communities, not just give money to charity. Steve Biko said: ‘The greatest weapon in the land of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.’
“I am very grateful to the Fees Must Fall movement, it made decolonisation fashionable again.”
He said the “so-called transformation model” had failed just like the Black Economic Empowerment model had. All it did was co-opt some black people into the system.
“I don't care if there's a black or white judge, quite honestly, I want to know that when they deal with a poor person, they can put their feet in that person's shoes.'
Political Bureau