The Magistrates’ Commission has been bombarded with shocking accounts of racism, smear campaigns and division among judicial officials during the disciplinary hearing of the chief magistrate of Pretoria.
The commission deals with complaints against magistrates.
The hearing has degenerated into mudslinging, with chief magistrate Heinrich Moldenhauer claiming that the group of magistrates who brought charges against him is resisting transformation.
However, the group claims that Moldenhauer has failed to fulfil his duties.
Moldenhauer first came under attack when a series of letters, signed by “a group of concerned businessmen”, was sent to him, to newspapers and to the judge president. The letters attacked Moldenhauer’s attitude to staff, saying he has an autocratic management style, and criticising the building’s facilities.
“It has also been alleged that you favour a certain political party,” one of the letters said.
Another letter accuses Moldenhauer of not making a serious effort to fight crime but rather trying to create a political platform for himself.
Moldenhauer pleaded not guilty on nine charges of misconduct before the commission.
He says he welcomes the prosecution because it provides an opportunity to reveal the deep-rooted racist behaviour among certain magistrates and to expose the irregularities that continue in the court.
His disciplinary hearing began last month and was described by an observer as “the truth and reconciliation hearing of the justice system”.
At the hearing Moldenhauer testified how Joy Ngubo, a black magistrate, had a breakdown as a result of the treatment he received from two white magistrates. Moldenhauer said Ngubo had been taken to a rugby match and given too much to drink. He was then paraded before police officers, with the white magistrates saying: “This is our senior magistrate.”
Moldenhauer said Ngubo had a rough time in the office and cried many times about the treatment he received from the magistrates. Ngubo had asked to be transferred back to Transkei.
“If these magistrates can treat their black colleagues in such a way then what is their attitude to black people who appear before them?” asked Moldenhauer.
Another incident of discrimination was alleged in an affidavit by Rashida Bibi Sayed, a Muslim magistrate, who was traumatised when another magistrate, Ansie van Vuuren, entered her office wearing two pig ears a few days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.
“In the past these attitudes were hidden. Now I have become the symbol of transformation and if they get rid of me then other magistrates all over the country will be afraid of transformation,” Moldenhauer said.
He said the hearing is in the public interest because it reveals the reality of the legal system and how custodians of human rights behave.
“If the mindset of these magistrates is wrong then the justice meted out will be wrong,” Moldenhauer said.
Dreyer van der Merwe, a magistrate testifying against Moldenhauer, said: “The public confidence [in magistrates] is at stake when matters in a court do not go according to the law.”
He says that Moldenhauer is “fostering racism” to protect himself. He denies allegations of resisting transformation.
“What is at stake here is the law. Our role is to deliver justice,” Van der Merwe said.
But Moldenhauer said: “They have tried to use all these isolated incidents against me as a smokescreen against transformation.”
He says that in his defence he will reveal more incidents that prove the conduct of certain magistrates are racist and that they are not willing to change.
The hearing continues.