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06/09/2012 12:46

JSC body opens way for action on Hlophe | Law & Constitution
The conduct committees decision relates to a complaint made in 2008 by all the then-justices of the Constitutional Court, alleging that Judge Hlophe had improperly sought to influence the outcome of judgments, then pending before their court, connected to corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma, then president of the African National Congress. At the time, many thought that those pending judgments were all that stood between Mr Zuma and the presidency of the country. Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe. Picture: SOWETAN
http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/law/2012/09/06/jsc-body-opens-way-for-action-on-hlophe

WESTERN Cape Judge President John Hlophe might be facing a Judicial Conduct Tribunal after a finding of prima facie ... gross misconduct, which may lead to impeachment, by a subcommittee of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). The judicial conduct committee, a JSC subcommittee, said yesterday it would recommend to the JSC that a tribunal be appointed a momentous step because, under the Judicial Service Commission Act, only potentially impeachable conduct is dealt with by a tribunal. A tribunal hearing, with cross-examination, is also viewed by many in the legal community as the only way that the ugly judicial dispute now dragging on for more than four years would finally be laid to rest. However, others think that a tribunal hearing would only further drag the judiciary through the mud.

The complaint, unprecedented in so many ways, rocked and divided the legal community in SA. Judge Hlophe consistently denied the allegation and portrayed his meetings with two Constitutional Court justices as friendly conversations, with no wrong intentions. A tribunal would have to decide which version is more probable. The conduct committees role, however, is only to make a recommendation a tribunal must still be approved by the JSC. When the JSC last considered whether to recommend a tribunal in respect of North Gauteng High Court Judge Nkola Motata and four other judges it was clear that it would not merely rubber-stamp recommendations of the conduct committee. The conduct committee made up of Free State Judge President Hendrik Musi, North West Judge President Monica Leeuw and North Gauteng High Court Judge Cynthia Pretorius said that in making its decision it had taken into account the clear pronouncements of the Supreme Court of Appeal that the JSC must make a determination whether the judge president was guilty of gross misconduct.

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bdlive.co.za
JSC body opens way for action on Hlophe | Law & Constitution

06/09/2012 12:46

Last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal set aside, as irrational, the JSCs original decision to clear Judge Hlophe of gross misconduct. However, a second complaint against Judge Hlophe, made by non-governmental organisation Freedom Under Law, failed. Freedom Under Laws complaint related to Judge Hlophes reaction to the justices complaint. After the justices complaint was made, Judge Hlophe came out guns blazing, made a counter-complaint against the justices, and, among other statements, accused former chief justice Pius Langa and Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke of being politically motivated and of wanting to get rid of me at all costs. The committee said it accepted that some of Judge Hlophes utterances would, if established, indicate gross misconduct. But given the circumstances under which the statements were made, it was not likely that such misconduct would justify impeachment. rabkinf@bdfm.co.za

http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/law/2012/09/06/jsc-body-opens-way-for-action-on-hlophe

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