Cape Judge President John Hlophe appears before the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) on Saturday after suffering a ”mischievous bout of influenza” which put paid to a hearing earlier in the week.
”We will definitely be there,” Barnabas Xulu, a director of Hlophe’s firm of attorneys, Xulu Liversage Incorporated, said on Friday.
However, he would not say whether Hlophe intended acting on an earlier threat to stay proceedings.
Hlophe stands accused of trying to influence two Constitutional Court judges — Bess Nkabinde and Chris Jafta — in their considerations of a judgement relating to African National Congress president Jacob Zuma.
He has, in turn, complained that they violated his rights by releasing a media statement on their decision to refer the matter to the JSC, and by not listening to his side of the story before doing so.
Hlophe unsuccessfully petitioned the High Court in Johannesburg to stop the JSC hearing, but his lawyers obtained a postponement on Wednesday when they proffered a doctor’s note booking him off sick until Friday.
He lost a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) application on his complaint and has indicated that he now intends taking his case to the Constitutional Court even though its judges would have to recuse themselves, which would leave the SCA ruling standing.
A Constitutional Court official said on Friday that Hlophe had not yet filed papers.
Hlophe has accused the JSC of bias towards the Constitutional Court judges and claimed Wednesday’s hearing was set down ”as if the outcome of the appeal by the judges of the Constitutional Court to the SCA was already known to the JSC”.
Although the JSC has denied the allegation, Hlophe has asked it to give its reasons for doing so in writing, provide a record of the meeting where this conclusion was reached, and Justice Minister Enver Surty’s written reasons for recusing himself from the hearing.
He threatened bringing a court interdict to stay proceedings if these were not provided and if his lawyers did not have enough time to review them by Saturday. — Sapa