/ 7 April 2009

Hlophe lawyers withdraw from JSC hearing

Cape Judge President John Hlophe’s lawyers withdrew from a hearing before the Judicial Services Commission on Tuesday, leaving the JSC to decide if it should proceed with a judicial misconduct hearing in their absence.

”Before the adjournment, we considered a request by Mr [Vuyani] Ngalwana for him and his team to be excused following our decision to refuse an application for a postponement.

”It follows that we are unable to excuse you from the hearing,” said committee chairperson Judge Lex Mpati.

Ngalwana, who has maintained that his client is too sick to attend the hearing, replied: ”So chair, we shall withdraw from the matter …

”He [Hlophe] won’t be able to here tomorrow, he won’t be able to be here the day after… it would not be in his best interests for us to represent him in his absence.

”The best way we can represent our client is by withdrawing from the matter.”

Advocate George Bizos then asked if the commission should not consider the number of occasions on which Hlophe’s lawyers have delayed the matter, hinting that this was a strategy by Hlophe to prevent the hearing from taking place.

”Before this question is answered, we would excuse ourselves,” said Ngalwana.

”Thank you, chair, at last we got to be excused.”

Advocate Gilbert Marcus, who is representing the judges of the Constitutional Court, said there had been too many attempts at ”stonewalling” the hearing and argued that it should continue.

”We would, with respect, submit that this commission should not buckle under those circumstances,” said Marcus.

Mpati once again adjourned the hearing to allow the JSC to decide if it should continue or not. — Sapa