GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE BAR OF SOUTH AFRICA
Admitted at The Hague on 21 August 1948
as a full member of the International Bar Association
_
08 February 2022
The General Council of the Bar of South Africa (GCB) stands for the independence, dignity and respect for the judiciary and has on numerous occasions publicly commented on unwarranted attacks on the judiciary for political or other partisan ends.
The GCB furthermore believes that all candidates who make themselves available for judicial appointment are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect in their interviews before the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), even if some may at times have to field challenging questions. This applies with even greater force when the candidates are senior, highly respected judges each of whom is considered suitable for the post of Chief Justice.
Following the widely criticised process conducted by the JSC last week involving interviews of each of the shortlisted candidates for South Africa’s next Chief Justice, the GCB has taken note of extensive negative publicity and has been inundated by objections to the conduct of the interviews and in particular, the well-documented conduct of one of the JSC commissioners, Dali Mpofu SC, towards two of the candidates, namely Judge President Mlambo and Acting Chief Justice Zondo, and his inappropriate comments directed at the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal, Justice Maya.
The GCB expresses its strong disapproval of the way in which some of the candidates were treated by a number of the commissioners and in particular, the conduct of Mpofu SC during these public interviews.
Mpofu SC serves on the JSC as one of the representatives of the advocates’ profession nominated by the GCB in terms of the existing working arrangement between the GCB and Advocates for Transformation (AFT), which allows AFT to nominate one of the GCB nominees on the JSC.
Mpofu SC is nevertheless a representative of the advocates’ profession as a whole. His inappropriate questioning of the candidates for appointment to the highest judicial position in the land, that of Chief Justice, is seen to have brought the profession into disrepute.
The unfair questioning of Mlambo JP, which closely followed that of Malema MP, created the impression that Mpofu SC and Malema MP were using the JSC as a platform for some political end.
The spurious ad hominem attacks on Mlambo JP, during the course of which resort was had to highly destructive, and clearly unsubstantiated, “rumours” of sexual harassment of applicants for acting appointments, for which, on Mpofu SC’s own version, there was no factual basis, is seen to have been employed simply in order to taint the reputation of the Honourable Judge President and exclude him from consideration for appointment on this fabricated ground alone.
The sexist nature of Mpofu SC’s questioning of SCA President Maya, resorting at the commencement of his questioning to totally inappropriate sexual innuendo, which was offensive and, once again, unprofessional and lacking in the decorum which the platform and interviewing process required, has heightened the concern.
The pending disciplinary charges against Mpofu SC regarding his conduct at a Zondo Commission hearing, following which the ACJ publicly admonished him, should of its own already have disqualified him from representing the advocates’ profession on the JSC for purposes of interviewing the candidates, in particular Zondo ACJ.
All of the above is seen to have brought the advocacy profession in particular, and the administration of justice in general, into disrepute.
Objection has been raised to Mpofu SC continuing to be the representative of the advocates’ profession on the JSC, entrusted as he is with the task of representing the values and interests of all practicing advocates in relation to judicial appointments and other important functions of the JSC.
The GCB has been requested by a number of constituent bars and individual members to seek the replacement of Mpofu SC on the JSC and is in discussions with AFT to that end.
Statement issued by Craig Watt-Pringle SC, Chairperson of the General Council of the Bar of South Africa, 8 February 2022
