The future of John Hlophe, the current Judge President of the Western Cape Division of the High Court, is in peril after the Judicial Services Commission recommended his suspension.
The fate of Hlophe is now in the hands of President Cyril Ramaphosa. Hlophe was appointed to the lifetime position at the helm of the division in 2000.
“At its meeting on Monday 25 July 2022 the Judicial Services Commission (JSC), constituted without members designated by the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces, deliberated and resolved to advise the President to suspend Judge President Hlophe in terms of section 177 (3) of the Constitution,” the JSC said in a statement.
Hlophe courted controversy in 2008, when judges of the Constitutional Court reported to the JSC that he had approached then justices Bess Nkabinde and Chris Jafta in an attempt to improperly influence them in a pending case regarding the President Jacob Zuma and the Thint company.
It is this matter that the majority of members of the JSC last year found Hlophe guilty of gross misconduct.
The Judicial Conduct Tribunal (JCT) in April last year found that Hlophe’s conduct breached section 165 of the Constitution in that he improperly attempted to influence Nkabinde and Jafta to violate their oaths of office.
The JCT also found that Hlophe’s conduct threatened and interfered with the independence, impartiality, dignity and effectiveness of the Constitutional Court and that it threatened public confidence in the judicial system.
The JCT further recommended Hlophe should face impeachment, paving the way for the JSC to recommend he be suspended.
Hlophe then approached the full bench of the Gauteng High Court to review the JSC finding against him of gross misconduct. However, the court in May dismissed his application but granted him leave to appeal the decision.
