By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services adopted a procedure for impeaching judges on Wednesday, a move that impacts retired Judge Nkola Motata and Western Cape Judge John Hlope.
The committee began with the first phase of Motata’s impeachment by agreeing that it would write to him and the JSC asking for submissions.
The submissions will be in mitigation and aggravation of the findings that Motata committed gross misconduct.
Motata was initially found guilty of misconduct by the JSC after he crashed his luxury vehicle against a wall in a residence in Johannesburg in 2007.
Chairperson of the justice committee, Bulelani Magwanishe said it was the first time since 1910 that a judge had been impeached.
But he said parliament will have to follow all processes.
On Hlophe, the JSC asked for his removal after he was found guilty of gross misconduct following his interference in former president Jacob Zuma’s matter in the Constitutional Court.
Magwanishe said they will decide on the date for the start of the impeachment of Hlophe and Motata, but it will happen in the next few months.
Political parties in the committee agreed that they need to begin with the impeachment of the two judges.
Parliament’s legal adviser Barbara Loots said parliament has a limited role in the impeachment of judges and cannot reconsider the merits of matters finalised by the JSC and court judgments.
“We are recommending that the committee must formally note the finding of the JSC as a legal fact,” said Loots.
The JSC’s finding is a jurisdictional precondition to the National Assembly resolution and the assembly has been called on to make a political decision, one that has to be taken after the committee and house have applied their minds and deliberated on the matter, she said.