The question that lingers on my mind frequently is: how was the impeached former Western Cape Judge President, Dr Mandlakayise John Hlophe, appointed as a judge?
He was the first black person to be appointed to the bench in that province in 1995 and only to be elevated to a judge president position five years later with hardly any practical experience as a former practicing counsel. He came from an academic background.
To be catapulted to these positions with no experience, that on its own showed that there was something amiss about his appointment.
His professional, moral and ethical behaviour on the bench often brought the judiciary, especially in the Western Cape, into disrepute.
By all accounts, Hlophe’s resume is admirable. However, his stewardship as the judge president of the Western Cape Division of the High Court since his appointment thereof left much to be desired. It created tensions between himself and some judges.
He had an abuse complaint lodged against him by his then deputy judge president Goliath at Judicial Conduct Committee. It was a complaint of use of uncollegial language and assault.
He didn’t deem it inappropriate in 2008 to try and influence some Constitutional Court justices who, before them, were seized with the matters involving the malfeasances of former president Jacob Zuma.
During that period when Zuma was battling his legal malfeasances, Hlophe approached some judges and informed them that “sesithembele kunina” as Zuma was litigating at the ConCourt, seeking the justices to find in Zuma’s favour.
What sort of a judge president would behave in such a manner? Hlophe cared less about the adverse consequences of attempting to influence judges would be or could be when he so did.
At the time of his appointment to the highest office as judge president, he disregarded the inherent conflict of interest in his appointment as a non-executive director of Oasis’s Crescent Retirement Fund bestowed on him.
He went on to receive massive remuneration as such while serving as judge president, showing disrespect by not disclosing the information to the chief justice and the minister of justice.
Also, disrespecting his seniors, such as the late former chief justice Pius Langa and former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, was not an issue to him.
He appeared to know that he had the cover of his comrade brother Jacob Zuma. Both are now in the same WhatsApp group.
The shenanigans around Hlophe, as in the case of Zuma, are bottomless.
In 2007, Hlophe unashamedly requested the government buy him a Porsche to accord with his status as a judge president. Really?
The JSC at the time of his appointment as the first black person to be appointed a judge, thought that he was adequately fit and proper to be appointed as a judge, only to move for his impeachment in February in 2004.
He has, upon his impeachment, forfeited his retirement package.
Hlophe’s infractions in terms of professionalism, morality and ethics are as distasteful as his many colourful academic qualifications.
The irony or twist in his chequered professional career is that a month or so post his impeachment, he was sworn in as an “honourable member of parliament”.
What a contradiction in terms? Once impeached as a dishonourable judge, how then did he become an “honourable member of parliament”, which had voted to impeach him?
Who was Hlophe, as a member of parliament, going to hold accountable?
Let us respect our democracy and elect people of impeccable integrity to represent us in positions of public responsibility and accountability.
Hlophe wasn’t even elected, as is everyone else in his party, the MKP. The supreme leader of the party undemocratically appointed all of them to serve us as “honourable members in parliament”.
For the sake of our moral and ethical integrity in the family of nations around the globe, let all those who are tainted in one way or form, shift from the stage of the public platform.
• Muofhe is an advocate in law and wrote this opinion piece in his personal capacity
