Cape Town - Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has a few days left before he should make an apology over his pro-Israel comment following the finding of the Judicial Conduct Committee.
One party came to his defence on Saturday, but other parties have called for him to step up to the plate.
The committee had given Mogoeng 10 days to apologise.
ACDP president Reverend Kenneth Meshoe has leapt to the defence of Mogoeng in the wake of the Judicial Conduct Committee ordering him to apologise for his remarks on Israel, saying Mogoeng should appeal the decision.
On Thursday the JCC said Mogoeng contravened five articles of the Judicial Code of Conduct with his remarks made last year that he was under an obligation as a Christian to love Israel and pray for Jerusalem’s peace, adding that his judicial misconduct was committed with wilfulness or gross negligence.
The JCC ordered that Mogoeng apologise for his remarks within 10 days and has to read an apology drafted by the JCC.
“If I curse Abraham and Israel, the almighty God will curse me too. I cannot do anything, as a Christian, other than love and pray for Israel because I know hatred for Israel by me and for my nation can only attract unprecedented curses,” Mogoeng said at the time.
The remarks drew widespread criticism and led to complaints lodged against Mogoeng by the #Africa4Palestine, South African BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Coalition and the Women’s Cultural Group.
Meshoe said that they were disappointed by the decision of the JCC ordering Mogoeng to apologise because Mogoeng was expressing his beliefs and he was well within his constitutional rights of freedom of expression.
“He was not condemning anybody, he was saying something that is in the Bible. We hope that he’s going to appeal this ruling because if it is a crime to quote what is in the Bible and to do what is in the Bible then the South African judiciary must make that clear.
“In my knowledge we all have the right to religious beliefs, so that’s why that ruling does not make sense to me as an individual, as a Christian. I think the right thing for him to do is to appeal the judgment as I don’t think it will pass Constitutional scrutiny,” Meshoe said.
IFP MP Narend Singh said Mogoeng should comply with the judgment of the JCC because a fair process was involved in the findings and he had to respect the decision. “One would expect anybody who is sanctioned by the Judicial Conduct Committee to comply with it,” Singh said.
SACP spokesperson Alex Mashilo said that by complying with the decision, Mogoeng would help restore public trust and respect for the judiciary, with the knowledge that no one including the head of the judiciary is above the law.
“The occupation of Palestinian land by the Israeli regime has caused untold misery on the Palestinian people over the decades.
“The utterances by Chief Justice Mogoeng implied that he could not feel any indignation at the injustices endured by the Palestinian people, the victims of Israeli apartheid,” Mashilo said.
Weekend Argus