Parliamentary committee to handle Judge Hlophe’s impeachment

JOHANNESBURG - The impeachment of Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe will be referred to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services before the National Assembly will vote on it.

Speaker Nosiviwe MapisaNqakula confirmed to the National Assembly Programming Committee yesterday that she had received a letter from the Judicial Service Commission recommending that Parliament impeaches Hlophe.

She referred the letter to Parliament’s legal team, who advised her to refer it to the portfolio committee. The committee will receive all correspondence, including the majority and minority reports.

“The Portfolio Committee on Justice will then consider procedural aspects and will then report to us (the National Assembly) once they have completed their work.”

A two-thirds majority will be required to remove Hlophe.

Last week, the Judicial Service Commission

announced that it had voted for Hlophe to face impeachment - paving the way for him to become the first judge in democratic South African history to be removed from office.

The vote comes four months after a Judicial Conduct Tribunal, led by retired Judge Joop Labuschagne, found Hlophe guilty of gross misconduct for attempting to sway two Constitutional Court justices to rule in favour of thenANC president Jacob Zuma, in his 2008 bid to overturn warrants used to seize 93 000 pages of corruption trial evidence against him.

The JSC, in a majority ruling, found that Hlophe seriously threatened and interfered with the independence, impartiality, dignity, and effectiveness of the Constitutional Court.

The commission ruled that Hlophe improperly attempted to influence justices Bess Nkabinde and Chris Jafta of the Constitutional Court to violate their oaths of office. – NEWS24.