Decision on tribunal's validity to be heard

A decision about the validity of a Judicial Service Commission tribunal hearing misconduct allegations against Cape Judge President John Hlophe will be heard on Thursday.

 

On Tuesday, the matter was postponed for time to make a decision.

 

"... We [the tribunal] are going to need some time," its president retired judge Joop Labuschagne said at the time.

 

Earlier, Selby Mbenenge SC, for Constitutional Court judges Chris Jafta and Bess Nkabinde, submitted that the tribunal's legitimacy was at stake because the rules governing it were invalid.

 

Mbenenge contended that the rules of the tribunal were also invalid because they were not published in the government gazette by the minister of justice, in terms of the unamended JSC Act.

 

"In our view the failure to publish the rules in question is fatal and the rules cannot be relied on," Mbenenge said at the time.

 

"The entire proceedings become a nullity. There was, in the first instance, no complaint to investigate. There was no inquiry to conduct."

 

In 2008, Jafta and Nkabinde alleged that Hlophe approached them while they were considering a corruption case involving the now President Jacob Zuma and arms company Thint in the multi-billion rand arms deal.

 

The justices regarded this as an attempt to improperly influence the outcome of the case and a complaint was lodged.

 

Hlophe, who was affronted that the judges had sent a copy of the complaint to the media before he had time to respond to it, laid a counter-complaint. A lengthy stop-start parallel process of JSC hearings and court challenges ensued.

 

The matter was ultimately heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal, with rulings in favour of Western Cape premier Helen Zille and lobby group Freedom Under Law.

 

-Sapa