CASAC expects ANC, DA to vote to have Motata, Hlophe impeached

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Executive Secretary at the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC), Lawson Naidoo, says he is expecting the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) to vote in agreement to have Judges Nkola Motata and John Hlophe removed from office.

This comes after the Justice Committee in Parliament recommended to the National Assembly that MPs vote to have Motata and Hlophe impeached.

Yesterday, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP on the Justice and Correctional Services Portfolio Committee of Parliament, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, asked the committee to allow the matter to be properly ventilated in the courts first.

Naidoo says the code of conduct of judges needs to be upheld by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

He says, “There is a judicial code of conduct that judges are expected to adhere to, there is a high standard of conduct that is required from judges given the important role that they play in our society.”

“There have been many calls on the basis of the examples set by these two cases that there is an urgent requirement for the JSC to reform its processes to ensure that complaints against judges are dealt with much more speedily so that there can be full confidence in the judiciary as a whole,” Naidoo adds.

In June, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) must refer a guilty finding against Motata, for gross misconduct to the National Assembly.

The retired judge was found guilty of drunk driving in 2009 after crashing his car into a residential wall in Hurlingham, Sandton, north of Johannesburg in 2007.

The Hlophe matter relates to a 2008 complaint laid against him by 11 Constitutional Court Justices. This complaint refers to the Western Cape Judge President’s alleged attempts to influence two Constitutional Court Judges in a pending judgment.

WATCH: Impeachment looms for Judges Nkola Motata and John Hlophe: