Cape Judge President John Hlophe has denied a claim that he received a R10 000-a-month retainer from a company involved in a lawsuit against a fellow judge.
The allegation is contained in an article to be published in the investigative magazine noseweek.
However, Hlophe said briefly on Friday: ”I’m not on any retainer.” Asked whether he had ever been on a retainer during his tenure as judge president, he said: ”No.”
The magazine claims that according to the books of the Cape Town-based Oasis Group Holdings, Hlophe was paid R10 000 a month from April 2002 to March 2003 as a ”consultation tariff”.
Explanatory notes in the books said Hlophe served on the board of trustees of one of Oasis’s retirement funds, and that ”he supplies expert legal advice”.
The article claims Hlophe entered into the agreement with Oasis after the group launched a R250 000 defamation action against Hlophe’s colleague on the Cape bench, Judge Siraj Desai, over remarks Desai allegedly made about Oasis’s role in a property development in Woodstock.
Litigants require the permission of a judge president to sue a judge: Hlophe gave Oasis that permission on October 2004. At the time, questions were asked as to whether the judge president should have made the decision on the action himself.
Hlophe heads Umbilo Trust, which partly owns Oasis Asset Management Company, which is part of Oasis Holdings.
In his response to the claim issued against him, Desai has disputed Oasis’s statement that the consent to sue him was ”properly sought or granted”.
Democratic Alliance justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer has called on Hlophe to deny or confirm the noseweek allegations, and on Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Bridget Mabandla to say whether she gave Hlophe permission to receive a retainer.
She said judges are not allowed to derive income outside that of their judicial posts without express permission from the minister.
Desai declined to comment on Friday on the noseweek report, and no comment was immediately available from Oasis or the justice ministry. — Sapa