Parliament’s portfolio committee on justice and correctional services has recommended that judges John Hlophe and Nkola Motata be removed from office.
The judges have faced impeachment after the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) sent a report to Parliament a few months ago.
On Wednesday, members of the justice committee found that Hlophe and Motata had committed gross misconduct and should be removed from office.
Hlophe has been sanctioned and found guilty of gross misconduct for having tried to influence the judgment involving former president Jacob Zuma in 2008.
Hlophe was brought before the Judicial Service Commission after he was accused of improperly trying to influence the decision of two Constitutional Court justices to favour Zuma in the arms deal case.
Last year, lawyers representing the JSC argued that the suspended Western Cape judge president’s case was legally misconceived, divorced from facts and had absurd consequences for the lawman.
On the other hand, Judge Motata, who crashed his car into the boundary wall of Richard Baird’s Hurlingham home in Johannesburg in 2007, was found guilty by the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, in 2009. Motata was subsequently convicted of drunken driving and the court sentenced him to a fine of R20 000 or 12 months’ imprisonment.
His case was then referred to the tribunal, which found Motata’s conduct at the scene of a car crash racist and lacking integrity.
The tribunal’s report said the “remarks he made were racist and thus impinged on and were prejudicial to the impartiality and dignity of the courts”.
This week, the judiciary monitoring body, Judges Matter, said judges Motata and Hlophe were the first to have tested the conduct system for judges after the portfolio committee said it would recommend that both judges be impeached.
Two-thirds of the National Assembly’s MPs would have to vote in support of the recommendation for it to take effect.
Only the EFF opposed the recommendation during the committee’s discussions on Tuesday.
“They are pathfinders in a way; they have really been the first judges who have tested the conduct system, although Judge President Hlophe, to a larger degree, and what they have done is they have challenged most parts of the judicial conduct system,” Judges Matter co-ordinator Allison Tilley said.
Tilley said that in spite of the challenges, the two judges would soon learn their fate.
“The many challenges that they brought did not succeed. They have certainly appealed the matters as far as they can take them. I think what that ends up meaning is that the subsequent conduct matters that are coming through now are going to be dealt with more quickly,” she said.
On Wednesday, Parliament’s justice committee refused a request from the two embattled high court judges to appear before it in person to motivate why they should not be removed from the Bench.
The committee said their written submissions on two occasions would be enough for the committee to finally make its decision.
The ANC and DA said on Wednesday that they were satisfied that the evidence was enough to recommend to the National Assembly that the judges be impeached.
But the EFF came to their defence, appealing to the committee to treat them with ubuntu.
Two-thirds of the National Assembly would have to vote in favour of the removal for the impeachment to succeed.
The Star