/ 21 July 2009

Aspirant judge wins battle with NPA

A former employee of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) nominated for the Western Cape bench told the Judicial Services Commission on Tuesday that the prosecuting body had demanded she pay back her salary for the time she served as an acting judge.

Elizabeth Baartman said after a ”lengthy campaign”, which included many letters to Chief Justice Pius Langa, her dispute with the NPA ended last week with a phone call from its acting head, Mokotedi Mpshe. He said they would withdraw the claim.

”Advocate Mpshe called me last Friday to say they won’t pursue the payment issue,” the former prosecutor at the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) told the JSC.

The commission conducted interviews with five candidates nominated to two positions at the Western Cape High Court.

On Monday, it heard from a former acting judge nominated for the Gauteng bench, that she too had come under pressure from the NPA to choose between court and her position at the AFU.

Nomonde Mngqibisi-Thusi said she ”read between the lines that I would be asked to leave if I carried on acting”. She decided not to serve further stints as an acting judge.

In contrast, Baartman decided to resign.

She painted a picture of a difficult tenure at the unit, which included being forced to sign a contract that she would serve out a certain period, after she embarked on a training course for female jurists.

She said she had an unparalleled success record at the unit’s Cape Town division, and had been promoted, but quit after she was warned over serving as an acting judge, as the NPA believed a prosecutor serving against a judge could violate the principle of separation of powers.

”Once I applied my mind it, I could see the point and I resigned.

She said the head of the unit, Willie Hofmeyr, was ”very upset” by her resignation but declined to say to what extent he had been unhappy about her working on the bench.

Justice Minister Jeff Radebe has signalled displeasure with the NPA’s attitude and vowed to take up the matter with Mpshe.

But another nominee for the Western Cape bench, Senior Council Ashley Binns-Ward, said he believed there was a case to be made against allowing prosecutors to serve as judges.

He said the matter had been debated at the General Council of the Bar, and he had summed up the argument of those who believed it did blur boundaries, though his personal views were ambivalent.

The JSC would on Tuesday conclude interviews with aspirant judges nominated to fill 14 positions on the bench, including three at the Supreme Court of Appeals.

The hearings were scheduled for last month, but postponed by Rabebe in an unprecedented step.

He argued that more time was needed to consider the transformation of the judiciary. The interviews began on Sunday. — Sapa