By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe from his duties pending a decision of the National Assembly.
The Presidency in a statement said the decision was based on advice from the Judicial Service Commission.
“In order to ensure continuity and stability in the work of the divisional high court, the suspension which is in effect immediately, is on condition that Judge President Hlophe completes all part-heard matters and reserved judgments.”
This comes after the Judicial Conduct Tribunal found Hlophe “breached the provisions of Section 165 of the Constitution by improperly attempting to influence the two Justices of the Constitutional Court to violate their oaths of office”.
The first citizen executed the suspension based on advice from the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and in terms of the Constitution of South Africa.
Ramaphosa received the report from the JSC in on 27 July 2022.
The matter is referred to the National Assembly (NA) to institute impeachment proceedings against Hlophe.
Hlophe’s woes date back to May 2008 when 11 justices of the Constitutional Court lodged a complaint at the JSC against Hlophe.
This was in connection with his attempt to influence the outcome of certain cases pending before the Constitutional Court in favour of former statesman Jacob Zuma.
At the time of his appointment to the bench in 1995 Hlophe, now 62, was hailed as the youngest judge to be appointed to the Western Cape high court. Highly qualified he holds an LLM and PhD from Cambridge.
Before that he was a professor and Head of the Department of Constitutional and Public International Law at the University of Transkei (Now called Walter Sisulu University).
He was also a member of the South African Law Commission’s Project on International and Domestic Arbitration; he is a former Chancellor of the Peninsula Technikon and represented South Africa at the Hague Conference on Private International Law (the multi-lateral treaty on Recognition, Jurisdiction, and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters.
Reaction
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the long-overdue suspension of Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe.
Earlier this year, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) made a finding of misconduct against Judge Hlophe and recommended that he be suspended in terms of Section 177(3) of the Constitution. This affirms the 12-year-long position of the DA that Judge Hlophe was not fit and proper to lead the Western Cape High Court.
It is regrettable that this suspension was unnecessarily delayed by President Ramaphosa, as this has resulted in Hlophe inflicting further damage to the judiciary through a variety of reckless statements.
The decision to suspend Hlophe will help restore credibility to the Western Cape Division of the High Court.
The DA calls on Parliament to proceed without further delay to institute removal proceedings under Section 177(1)(b).
ActionSA welcomes President Ramaphosa’s immediate suspension of Western Cape High Court Judge President, John Hlophe.
The fact that the corruption and cronyism, which lies at the heart of the ANC’s political leadership, have intruded into our judiciary is a shocking indictment on the state of South Africa.
It is tragic that Hlophe’s conduct has undermined and tarnished the perception of our judiciary as an independent, competent, and dignified institution which protects rights and upholds the rule of law.
ActionSA notes that the Deputy Judge President of the Western Cape Division of the High Court, Judge Goliath, will be Acting Judge President for the duration of Hlophe’s suspension, and trusts that Judge Goliath’s leadership will restore the public’s faith in the judiciary in the Western Cape.
While we welcome this development, we are equally concerned that President Ramaphosa seems to be hiding out and presiding from the shadows. For an announcement this important, one would expect that he addresses the nation as would be the case in any decent democratic dispensation.