Former South African President Jacob Zuma (right) listens to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng ahead of his inauguration ceremony in his final term at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on May 24, 2014.
What you need to know:
South African Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, known for speaking his mind, has sent shockwaves through the entire country after a prayer in which he referenced wild conspiracy theories claiming that anti-Covid vaccinations are “evil” and “of the devil”.
The country’s top judge, an openly avowed Christian who says his belief and speech is protected under South Africa’s Constitution, made his highly controversial prayerful remarks late on Thursday while addressing staff at Tembisa Hospital near Johannesburg.
Justice Mogoeng prayed for divine intervention against “this demon Covid” and called on God to “lock” any vaccine “corrupted by the devil”.
The CJ doubled down on his remarks on Friday where he insisted that he was unrepentant.
“I won’t beg permission to pray”, said Mogoeng, making little effort to back away from his “666 vaccine” comments of the previous day.
The Chief Justice, seemingly echoing the widespread disinformation group QAnon, which holds a loosely tied together variety of extreme conspiracy theories ranging from who supposedly killed US President John F. Kennedy to ''Donald Trump won the election'', said no one has a right to force a vaccine on him if he did not want one.
He also refused to concede to criticism that his remarks could be taken as spreading false information about the Covid-19 pandemic.
Unnamed vaccine
In his prayer on Thursday, he referenced an unnamed vaccine supposedly designed to introduce “evil” into people by changing their DNA.
When challenged about this, Mogoeng appeared heated and insisted that South Africa, being a secular state, had no bearing on his opinions nor on expressing them in public.
His comments have gone viral on social media, as well spreading shock in judicial and public health circles.
The Chief Justice’s utterances and accompanying controversy come hot on the heels of SA President Cyril Ramaphosa calling on people to stop criticising Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo and his handling of the tricky State Capture Commission of Inquiry.
Simultaneously, the Judge President of the Cape High Court is appearing this week before a Judicial Tribunal for allegedly attempting to persuade two Constitutional Court judges to decide in favour of former president Jacob Zuma.
That highly improper conduct is alleged to have happened at least 12 years ago.
But ramifications were still playing out this week as Zuma again appeared in court on the same fraud, corruption and money-laundering charges as were in question before the Constitutional Court at that time.
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