By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Retired Constitutional Court judge Johann Kriegler intends to appeal the Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC) ruling ordering him to retract statements he made about Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe in March last year.
The JCC has ordered Judge Kriegler to retract a statement that Hlophe was unfit to be a judge. Freedom Under Law (FUL) on Tuesday said the JCC finding against Kriegler, its chairperson, is materially incorrect and adversely implicates important issues of principle.
“It will be appealed insofar as it upheld one of the complaints. FUL endorses the public utterances made by Judge Kriegler in relation to Judge Hlophe,” it said.
In a ruling on Friday, the JCC ordered Kriegler to retract his remarks.
The JCC ruled against Kriegler following a misconduct complaint made by advocate Vuyani Ngalwana, a member of the Pan African Bar Association of SA (Pabasa).
Ngalwana had complained that Kriegler had breached the Code of Judicial Conduct and provisions of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). “The complaint alleged (Kriegler) has since 2009 persistently attacked JP Hlophe in his utterances … subsequent to a complaint of gross misconduct against JP Hlophe by the Justices of the Constitutional Court,” stated JCC member, acting Justice Dumisani Zondi, who penned the ruling.
Zondi said Ngalwana laid the complaint against Kriegler to “vindicate the integrity, dignity and independence of the judiciary and the judicial system” following the attacks on Hlophe.Kriegler’s argument that Ngalwana laid the complaint because he was a Hlophe supporter was unfounded, Zondi said.
“(Kriegler) argues that it can be inferred that (the complaint) has been brought solely for the purpose of neutralising Hlophe’s detractors (but) his complaint was not motivated by any ulterior motive,” he said.
The ruling noted that it was common cause that advocate Ngalwana had represented Hlophe in cases involving the Judge President before the JSC and in court between 2008 and 2011.