Judge John Hlophe, who was impeached and removed from his position in March this year, is expected to be sworn in as a member of parliament this week and face those “who threw him under the bus”.
Hlophe, who became the first judge to be impeached in the new dispensation, told Sunday World in an exclusive interview on Friday that he was removed unlawfully.
“I was removed unlawfully, and the person who removed me is still in office,” Hlophe said.
In March of this year, 305 members of parliament voted in support of his impeachment, while 25 voted against it.
Hlophe returns to parliament as the leader of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, which is going to be the official opposition party after it refused to join the Government of National Unity (GNU).
The party, which was launched in December last year, has 58 seats in the National Assembly.
The party claimed it garnered more votes in the May 29 elections but the results were rigged, and it has since taken the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to court in a bid to get the results recounted. “I have accepted to lead the party. I am going to lead the MK party in parliament. At the moment, we are planning to be sworn in on Tuesday. All 58 of us.
“Thereafter, I will spend a couple of days preparing my maiden speech; maybe call a press conference,” Hlophe said.
The former judge said he was not prepared to give much until he was sworn in as a member of parliament.
The party shunned parliament’s first sitting last week, where all members were sworn in, as they weren’t happy that their official complaint about alleged election rigging was not attended to. In its court papers, the party claims the IEC alleged it failed to count about nine million votes and argues that the majority of those voters might have voted for it.
Hlophe was impeached after he was found guilty of gross misconduct following allegations that he attempted to influence the judiciary in a case involving former president Jacob Zuma.
Zuma is the president of the MK Party, but he won’t be sworn in as a member of parliament after the constitutional court ruled that he is not eligible to be a parliamentarian because of his previous conviction.
Zuma was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment in 2021 for contempt of court. This came after he refused to appear before the state capture commission. The commission was headed by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, and Zuma walked out of the commission after he accused the jurist of being conflicted in his matter.
But the Constitutional Court ruled that he was in contempt of the court order and ordered him to appear again before the commission. Now Zuma will have Hlophe as his eyes and ears in parliament.
A senior counsel, who asked not to be named, said he was happy for Hlophe. “They thought they were burying him, but they didn’t know that he was a seed. Hlophe is one of those that the ANC threw under the bus. History doesn’t have blank pages, and they will be judged harshly.
“Now Hlophe is going to judge those who unlawfully judged him,” the counsel said.
MK spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said the party was happy to have a person of Hlophe’s calibre to lead them in parliament. “We are very happy to have him, and he is ready to lead us,” Ndhlela said
