Judges in the firing line: report

Unprecedented number of complaints almost totalling 100

THE Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has received an unprecedented number of complaints totalling almost 100 against judges in the 2017-18 financial year.

This emerged in the JSC’s annual report tabled in Parliament this week by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.

In his report, Mogoeng said the JSC’s judicial conduct committee received 90 complaints that were lodged against judges, with 71 complaints being resolved and 19 others still pending.

The Gauteng Division of the High Court and the Labour Court recorded the most complaints at 32 and 11 respectively.

“A large number of complaints are against judges of the Gauteng Division of the High Court.

“These complaints mostly relate to litigants who are aggrieved by an order or judgment of the court which the committee invariably has to dismiss,” Mogoeng said.

“The same sentiment can be expressed about the Labour Court which has the second highest number of complaints,” he said.

Mogoeng said there was a lack of understanding by members of the public as to the types of complaints that the committee was mandated to deal with hence the large number of miscellaneous complaints that were received.

“Members of the committee have taken note of this aspect and are preparing a brochure to address this challenge.

“It is believed that such a brochure will go a long way to help the public understand that the committee is not an alternative appeal forum to the courts.”

Mogoeng also said the judicial conduct committee has recommended that a judicial conduct tribunal be appointed in connection with four judges over outstanding judgments.

These are judges Ferdi Preller of Gauteng Division, Jacqueline Henriques of KwaZulu-Natal Division, Brian Spilg of the Gauteng Division and an unnamed fourth judge from the KwaZulu-Natal Division.

In terms of judicial norms and standards, judicial officers are expected to hand down reserved judgments not later than three months after the date of last hearing.

The code of judicial conduct states that all reserved judgments must be delivered before the end of term in which the hearing of a matter was completed.

While the JSC annual report does not delve into the reserved judgments, the annual report for the Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ) puts the number carried over from March 2017 at 1 154.

A total of 5 355, inclusive of the 1 154 from March 2017, were reserved during 2017-18 and 4 148 delivered.

As at March 2018, 1 207 judgments remained reserved with 839 being reserved for longer than three months.

Mogoeng also said the JSC’s judicial conduct tribunal, established to investigate and report on complaints against judges Moses Mavundla, Ntsikelelo Poswa, Preller and George Webster, met in October 2017 to take stock of what needed to be done to commence with the proceedings.

He also said the tribunal established to deal with a complaint against Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe met three times and decided to hold a hearing in July 2018.

The hearing was postponed after Judge Cagney Musi recused himself.

The tribunal on Judge Nkola Motata held hearings between January 17 and 19, 2018.

Mogoeng has on record noted the delays in finalising matters that appeared to be sufficiently serious to warrant impeachment.

“Protracted and several court cases challenged impeded the speedy finalisation of those matters. Otherwise, almost all matters that did not require the establishment of the judicial conduct tribunal to assess the possibility of impeachment were finalised,” he states in the OCJ report.

Mogoeng also said as at March 2018, out of 249 judges in active service, 247 had disclosed their interests.

“The two who had not disclosed their registrable interest by 31 March 2018 were incapacitated by serious illnesses,” Mogoeng said.

All the 18 judges appointed in the year under review disclosed their interests within 30 days of appointment.