ANC breaks multiparty tradition by removing opposition NCOP representation from JSC

In light of the upcoming interviews for new Constitutional Court judges, it is absolutely unacceptable that the ANC has used underhanded tactics to remove the opposition's sole representative from the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). The convention of multi-party democracy and representivity has been broken and the ANC has used its majority position to abuse the Constitution, by replacing the DA's Darryl Worth with an ANC member. The result is that all NCOP delegates to the JSC are now ANC members - a state of affairs that reflects just how determined the ANC is to deprive the opposition of their democratic right to representation on the JSC, and possibly push through partisan judicial candidates.

At the end of yesterday afternoon's sitting in the NCOP, the ANC Chief Whip Nosipho Ntwanambi proposed a motion without notice to re-elect the four delegates serving on the JSC, as the ANC's Mr Mofokeng had resigned from the Commission. The Constitution provides that the four delegates from the NCOP be designated together by the Council, with a supporting vote of at least six provinces. Mr Mofokeng's resignation invoked the re-election of the other three delegates, but in a move that was very obviously an attempt to drive out any opposition representation, the two former ANC delegates (Mr Mahlangu and Ms Mabe) remained, the resignee was replaced with another ANC delegate, Mr Mashamaite, and the DA delegate, Darryl Worth, was replaced by Ms Boroto, also of the ANC.

The JSC is the official body charged with the responsibility of appointing judges and investigating complaints of misconduct against judges. It is a critical institution that absolutely must be representative. With the upcoming interviews for new Constitutional Court judges, it is clear that the ANC's members are pushing out any opposing voices in a bid to ram through their own agenda. Despite the rhetoric of judicial independence and multi-party cooperation, these acts demonstrate that the ANC is merely paying lip-service to public opinion, whilst the facts speak otherwise.

It is clear that the motion proposed and passed yesterday by the ANC in the NCOP is nothing more than a deliberate attempt to appoint ANC loyalists to the JSC in order to, in turn, elect ANC loyalist judges.

Joint statement issued by Athol Trollip, Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader, and Watty Watson, DA leader in the NCOP, July 9 2009

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