AfriForum submits complaint against Judge Hlope to JSC

The legal team of the civil rights initiative AfriForum today submitted a written complaint against Judge John Hlophe to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) in response to the racist and hurtful remarks that Hlope had allegedly made regarding judges of the Constitutional Court, according to an article in the Mail & Guardian.  Hlophe is quoted as having said, amongst other things, that he refused to shake the hand of Chief Justice Pius Langa, as "I am not going to shake a white man's hand".  Hlophe now denies having said these things, while the Mail & Guardian maintains that he had indeed made these objectionable statements.

According to Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, Hlophe has a history of perpetually denying the large number of ill-considered statements that have been ascribed to him in the past, or of alleging that his words have been misquoted.  "These latest allegations against Hlophe must not be swept under the carpet once again, as has been the case in the past, as this will raise serious question marks about the integrity of the judicial system," Kriel said.

Kriel also referred to allegations in 2005 that Hlophe supposedly had said that he had specifically given the Mikro School court case to Judge Wilf Thring, as he (Hlophe) had known that Thring would "f#ck" the case up, and that the case could then be resolved on appeal.  In the same year, a Cape lawyer, Joshua Greeff, alleged that Hlophe had called him a "white sh#t".  Later indications that Hlophe had also accepted payments from the company Oasis, while making a decision on whether Oasis could proceed with legal action against Judge Siraj Desai, according to Kriel should have been handled far more circumspectly by the JSC.

The judicial system according to Kriel is a crucial cornerstone for the protection of the rights of civil society and therefore judges should at all times remain above any form of suspicion.  Kriel underlined that AfriForum's complaint is specifically directed at demanding from the side of the civil society that the JSC should continue and even expand their current investigations into Hlophe's actions.

Statement issued by Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, August 13 2009

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