JSC to study Hlophe judgement

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) will study a judgement which set aside its hearings into Cape Judge President John Hlophe’s misconduct complaint before deciding what to do, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“Our committee consists of 11 people and each one would have to take part in the decision as to the way forward,” Marumo Moerane said.

The JSC could choose to accept the majority ruling and start proceedings from scratch, or it could take the matter to the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA), or do both, he said.

SCA Judge President Lex Mpati, who chairs the JSC complaints committee, sent a note to the members of the JSC on Tuesday asking them to study Monday’s judgement and to send their comments to him.

This comes after Hlophe applied for an interdict in the High Court in Johannesburg to have the entire complaints procedure from July 2008 declared void, partly on allegations of bias.

The court set aside the proceedings of April 7 and 8, where some judges of the Constitutional Court testified about their concerns about Hlophe discussing a judgement relating to President Jacob Zuma.

Proceedings were set aside because the JSC refused to postpone the matter although Hlophe was ill and went ahead without him.

The high court judges believed this violated his rights as he should have been present to assess the credibility of the testimony.—Sapa