Pretoria - The Gauteng Provincial Division of the High Court, sitting in Pretoria, has not only given the green light for a tribunal to investigate complaints against one of its former judges, Ntsikelelo Poswa, it has also paved the way for complaints against one of its other judges - drink driving judge Nkola Motata - to go ahead.
A full bench (three judges) turned down Judge Poswa’s application to stop the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) from forging ahead with a tribunal to investigate complaints of impeachable misconduct against him.
The judges shot down each point raised by Judge Poswa’s legal team as to why he should not face the music following complaints relating to outstanding judgments. In some cases the judgments had been outstanding for up to six years after the matters had been heard.
The aggrieved parties in those judgments turned to then Judge President Bernard Ngoepe - who tried to obtain reasons from Judge Poswa as to why the judgments were outstanding - but eventually approached the JSC.
Various reasons were forwarded by Judge Poswa for the delay in delivering the judgments. These ranged from a language problem with Afrikaans, to a heavy workload, files that went missing, and his high blood pressure and cholesterol problems.
Judge Poswa has been placed on medical pension and submitted this as one of the reasons for his outstanding judgments.
He told the three Johannesburg judges who heard his application, that there was no duty or obligation on him to complete his judgments as he was no longer in active service. But Judge Neels Claassen said: “This, to say the least, is quite astounding,” adding that Judge Poswa did not say he was not competent to deliver the outstanding judgments. “There is no evidence to show he’s not compos mentis to do so.”
Judge Poswa’s contention that he no longer needed to deliver the judgments “fly in the face of the ethical duties of a judge, whether before or after discharge or retirement”, he said. He also slammed Judge Poswa’s complaint that the JSC dragged its heels in prosecuting the complaint lodged against him. Judge Poswa said it was unfair towards him that this process had taken so long.
But Judge Claassen said: “For the applicant (Judge Poswa) to complain about the delay in prosecuting the complaints lodged against him, after he had delayed in rendering judgments up to six years, smacks of impertinence…”
Judge Poswa challenged the lawfulness of the tribunal to investigate the complaints against him. This related to various technical aspects. He said the JSC was, in terms of the old act, not empowered to investigate him.
But Judge Claassen noted in his judgment that the new act was now applicable and had sufficient tools to deal with allegations of misconduct against judges.
Judge Poswa’s legal challenge had put other similar investigations against judges on ice, including complaints levelled against Judge Motata for alleged racist comments he had made following his drink driving incident.
Judge Claassen said the was of material importance to the judiciary and the public. A definitive judgment was expeditiously required as there were other pending cases dependent on the outcome of this case. This judgment has now paved the way for the delayed tribunals set up by the JSC, to proceed with investigating the complaints against various judges.
Pretoria News