The judiciary as a bastion of the legal order in challenging times : FW De Klerk Lecture : 13 October 2008

The purpose of my address to you this evening is to give you and other interested parties the assurance that, despite these unfortunate events involving important role players, the judiciary should continue to be a bastion or stronghold of the legal order, however challenging the times may be. I am strengthened in this view by the democratic principles and values enshrined in our Constitution which provides, in section 165(1), that the judicial authority resides in the courts. These courts, we are told in section 165(2), are ''independent and subject only to the Constitution and the law, which they must apply impartially and without fear, favour or prejudice''.