Hlophe ‘contemplating’ court action against JSC

JOHANNESBURG - Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe, was ‘contemplating’ court action against the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), according to a lawyer’s letter asking the JSC for its reasons for advising President Cyril Ramaphosa to suspend him.

The letter, sent yesterday, followed the JSC’s decision on Monday night to advise the president to suspend Hlophe, after its decision that he was guilty of gross misconduct and to refer him to parliament for possible impeachment.

The finding was in relation to a 2008 complaint from all the then justices of the Constitutional Court, that Hlophe had tried to influence the outcome of a pending judgment connected to corruption charges involving former President Jacob Zuma.

Explain

In the judge president’s letter to the JSC, Hlophe’s attorney Barnabas Xulu also asked the JSC to explain why it had decided to suspend Hlophe without hearing oral ‘representations and argument’ from Hlophe, as he had requested.

Xulu said Hlophe had asked in his written submissions to the JSC, to allow his lawyers to make oral submissions to the JSC meeting ‘due to the complexity of the issues involved’.

“The JSC did not respond to that request, and, without explanation, failed to provide an opportunity for judge president Hlophe’s legal representatives to address the JSC meeting,” he said.

He said Hlophe was also entitled to know the composition of Monday’s meeting.

Challenged

The composition of the meeting that decided that he was guilty of gross misconduct was one of the main grounds upon which he challenged the gross misconduct finding in court. Though he lost in the high court, he was granted leave to appeal and that litigation is still ongoing.