Dismissed judge takes fight to JSC committee

AN advocate has lodged a complaint against the deputy judge president of the High Court in Johannesburg, Phineas Mojapelo, after he was “dishonourably” dismissed as an acting judge.

Etienne du Toit SC from the Johannesburg bar submitted a list of 13 complaints against Mojapelo to the judicial conduct committee, which considers complaints against judges. The committee falls under the Judicial Service Commission.

In his 32-page affidavit, Du Toit said the complaints stemmed from events that took place in 2005 when he was an acting judge in the High Court in Johannesburg.

He performed the last of his “residual” judicial duties in November last year.

Du Toit’s problems started after he asked interpreters to take an oath before the start of every new criminal trial over which he presided.

The interpreters objected to this and wrote to Mojapelo, requesting Du Toit to “align himself with the correct procedure” followed in the court “before a situation is reached where he will have no interpreter to assist him”.

Du Toit said Mojapelo wanted his opinion on the letter and he told the judge it was “improper and contemptuous”.

Du Toit advised Mojapelo that “there could be no question of anybody being either humiliated or embarrassed” by taking the oath and he had assumed that Mojapelo would deal with the matter.

He accused Mojapelo of repeated interference with his judicial independence that was “designed to unduly hasten the conclusion of my part-heard criminal cases and my departure from the criminal courts, culminating in my eventual dishonourable dismissal at his instance”.

He said Mojapelo had also placed additional pressure on him by giving him two days in which to submit a list of his reserved judgments and partly heard matters.

Judicial Services Commission spokesman CP Fourie said the conduct committee would consider the complaints and take them further, if necessary.