Exclusive: chief justice speaks out
CHIEF JUSTICE: ‘NKANDLA JUDGMENT IS NOT THE ONLY THING I HAVE DONE’
Mogoeng an outspoken man whose ban on parents spanking their kids was not popular.
From where I stand, it’s always about justice, says Mogoeng Mogoeng.
His father was a miner, his mother worked on farms before becoming a domestic worker and Chief Justice Mogoeng Thomas Reetsang Mogoeng hoped one day people would see more of his accomplishments than the Nkandla judgments and realise the constitution was the one law which ruled us all – even judges.
People buzzed around SA’s fourth chief justice as he walked purposefully to his office with muted but animated conversations around time management and his next appointment as he left a meeting of the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) for his interview with The Citizen.
Outside the building, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema – also on the JSC board – addressed more questions about the VBS Mutual Bank saga as Mogoeng’s people eventually left his office after checking their watches one last time.
“Most of the time the focus is on the negative or the isolation of the Nkandla judgment I wrote, as if it were the only thing I’ve ever done,” said a jovial Mogoeng as he settled himself into his chair.
September 1 was the eighth anniversary of his appointment to the bench by ousted president Jacob Zuma and while it’s probable the chief justice was aware of how seminal all the Nkandla/ Zuma judgments were, there were more current, pressing matters at hand.
“It’s been an exciting ride and I don’t know how many people ... believe I am getting myself involved in politics,” Mogoeng said of the latest crack at him.
“Here’s the question: what do they mean by ‘getting myself involved in politics’? There is hardly anything I say in the public domain that I’m not allowed to say in a judgment and most of the things I say in public addresses are things we have already articulated in our judgments.
“So, is the notion people have of a judge or a chief justice that you are not allowed to address meetings, or there are certain acceptable topics, and if so, which are those topics?”
Throwing a constitutional gauntlet down, Mogoeng believed people were saying judges, or he as the chief justice, had to be careful in what they said in case it landed up in court and force a recusal.
“What is it that would not possibly come before court? What is it a judge is not supposed to deliver a lecture on or to address the public on? I would be very interested to know what is it that is political that I’ve involved myself in,” Mogoeng said.
“Our constitution is a political animal; every aspect of it, from the preamble to the foundational values, all the way through so you would have to try and sift what is permissible for a judge to address in the public domain or in a judgment.”
He noted he had met people who knew little about the judiciary who “unfortunately” sought to assume the responsibility of mentors for judges.
“‘No, no, no, it’s not done this way!’ Really, what experience have you had to be speaking with authority to judges about the dos and don’ts of addressing public issues,” asked Mogoeng.
“From where I stand, it’s always about justice. Anything that touches on justice is my responsibility... [and] I’ll always address it, regardless of what other views out there might be.”
Moving on to the “spanking judgment”, Mogoeng laughed at a suggestion on social media parents should now bring errant children to the Constitutional Court for discipline.
The exploration of a different approach would require a policy decision, he said.
“That’s the constitutional responsibility of the executive of the state, not the judiciary. Our responsibility as the judiciary, even in relation to retain or abolish corporal punishment in a home setting is simply to look at the constitution, the common law, the expert evidence available and any other evidential material that could help us arrive at a decision,” Mogoeng said.
“It’s not a question of we had a choice retaining or abolishing, no, we were forced by the constitution to go there.”
Anything that touches on justice is my responsibility