A recently appointed JSC member says judges are were held to high standards that Hlophe has shown he might not be able to adhere to.
It may be the most urgent question facing President Jacob Zuma: whether to use his powers of appointment to rein in the courts.
Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe’s bid to dodge an impeachement is increasingly resembling the strategy that got Jacob Zuma off the hook.
The underlying concern is that black advocates are being excluded by a process that relies on peer assessment by a tight-knit ”boys’ club”.
John Hlophe wrote a week ago to then president Kgalema Motlanthe, accusing former justice minister Enver Surty of bias against him.
Seeking an interdict against the inquiry, Hlophe’s team will use an opinion the JSC itself commissioned on who must be present at its hearings.
The man at the centre of John Hlophe’s legal strategy in this week’s JSC hearing was selected because he knows how to ”fight in a dog fight”.
The JSC said it has barred the public from its Hlophe hearings to protect the ‘dignity and stature’ of the high office occupied by the feuding parties
WC judge president, together with 13 judges of the Constitutional Court, faces an unprecedented court-style inquiry into allegations of misconduct.
The Justice Department has released the terms of reference for the public service commission’s investigation into the conduct of DG Menzi Simelane.