South Africa: Why Is the Judicial Service Commission Not Suspending John Hlophe?

21 April 2021

analysis By Pierre De Vos

The finding by a Judicial Conduct Tribunal that Judge President John Hlophe is guilty of gross misconduct because he attempted to influence the Constitutional Court to rule in favour of former president Jacob Zuma in a pivotal case, is not likely to lead to a quick resolution of the matter. This sharply raises the issue of his suspension, and why the Judicial Service Commission is wrongly claiming it can only recommend that President Cyril Ramaphosa suspend Hlophe once it has endorsed the tribunal's report.

Last week Judge President John Hlophe's controversial lawyer, Barnabas Xulu, told eTV that Hlophe planned to take the Judicial Conduct Tribunal (JCT) report that found him guilty of gross misconduct on review to the high court. If the review proceeds, it will halt the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) process in its tracks. It could then take months or even years before the JSC finally decides whether to endorse the JCT finding or not.

...

AllAfrica Subscription Content

You must be an allAfrica.com subscriber for full access to certain content.

You have selected an article from the AllAfrica archive, which requires a subscription. You can subscribe by visiting our subscription page. Or for more information about becoming a subscriber, you can read our subscription and contribution overview.

For information about our premium subscription services:

You can also freely access - without a subscription - hundreds of today's top Africa stories and thousands of recent news articles from our home page »

Already a subscriber? Sign in for full access to article

Forgot your password?

Tagged:

Copyright © 2021 Daily Maverick. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.

AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 400 news and information items daily from over 100 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC.

AllAfrica - All the Time