TUESDAY, 8.30AM:
APARTHEID-era judges may be rattled out of the woodwork to speak at this week’s special Truth Commission hearings on the judiciary if they don’t volunteer themselves. Concerned jurists and human rights activists called on the TRC on Monday to subpoena those judges with a notorious track record of pro-apartheid judgements to speak at the hearings.
Though twenty judges submitted written submissions to the TRC, none would testify in public, fearing it would compromise their judicial independence.
Activist Paula McBride, who earlier submitted a 40-page document to the TRC outlining judges’ abuse of sentencing — including the death penalty — asked: “The leaders of our liberation movements were subpoenaed to account for things they did to liberate this country. Why are the judges not being subpoenaed to account before the TRC?”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu also criticised the judges for their no-show. “I am distressed that no judge has seen fit to appear before the commission. They have shown that they have not yet changed a mindset that properly belongs to the old dispensation,” he said.