Judge refuses to recuse himself

Rejects accusation of being biased in hate speech case as unfair

JUDGE Motsamai Makume called an application for him to recuse himself because of bias in the Chinese hatespeech case “unfair and unreasonable” when he dismissed the application.

The hearing of the case where 12 respondents allegedly posted anti-Chinese comments on Facebook in January 2017 continued at the Equality Court sitting in the South Gauteng High Court yesterday.

Mariete van der Linde de Klerk, the eighth respondent made an application for Judge Makume to recuse himself when she accused him of being biased.

The application for Makume’s recusal was presented to the court on Monday during cross-examination of the chairperson of The Chinese Association (TCA) Erwin Pon when Colin Garvey, counsel for Van der Linde de Klerk, attempted to use an affidavit by a social media expert.

The TCA’s attorney, Faizel Ismail, objected to the line of questioning as

Makume had already ruled that the affidavit, which had been tended as expert evidence was inadmissible on the basis that Van der Linde de Klerk only informed the complainants of her intention to present expert evidence last month, long after the hearing had started.

Garvey had told the court that the evidence in the affidavit would be like “bringing a sledgehammer to take out an ant” in the matter.

Judge Makume said the contention that he was biased and would not be impartial was “unfair and unreasonable”.

He added that his refusal to allow the evidence was not an indication of him being biased and that he was applying the laws and rules of the court.

“This shows clearly that this application has nothing to do with bias or fairness,” he said.

The court also heard that Dawn Reeve, Regina Richardson, Ryan van der Walt and Shana Markram, who were the fifth, ninth, 10th and 11th respondents respectively, all made confessions and had apologised to the TCA.

The respondents also agreed to make an apology, pinned as the “top post”, on their Facebook accounts, perform community service for 500 hours as prescribed by the TCA and receive sensitivity training from the SA Human Rights Commission.

Alice Henning, Anja Lock and Joy Termorshuizen, the first, second and sixth respondents, made confessions but did personal service in May 2017. They agreed to the same conditions as the fifth, ninth, 10th and 11th respondents in addition to paying damages pf R70 000 to R100 000.

The seventh respondent, Lana Berger placed herself in the hands of the court for judgment and Tracy Terick, the 12th respondent, made an apology on November 21 before the hearing resumed.

The third respondent, Cynthia Le Roux, was noted as non-service as she did not receive her summons to court.

The matter will resume today with the conclusion of Pon’s cross-examination. |