Didiza says it's an 'extraordinary leap' to suggest Hlophe's deployment to JSC an oversight failure of National Assembly

JOHANNESBURG - National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza has labeled it an "extraordinary leap" to suggest impeached Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe's deployment to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) represents an oversight failure on their part.

This was in response to an application filed by lobby group, AfriForum, with the Constitutional Court to have Hlophe's designation declared invalid and set aside.

While the Speaker has agreed to abide by the court’s ruling, AfriForum’s also asked the court to declare as invalid what it described as the National Assembly's failure to make rules for oversight of the JSC and to order it to do so.

In her papers before the Constitutional Court, Didiza insisted that she had discharged her functions "to the best of [her] abilities" in what she described as "a unique and truly unprecedented issue".

She accepted that there were no "specific rules" related to the designation of MPs to the JSC.

She maintained, however, that this did not mean the process unfolded in the absence of rules but rather it was "guided by the general rules of the National Assembly related to motions placed before the House".

She argued that AfriForum had not explained why the National Assembly's oversight was, as the lobby group insists, insufficient, "particularly in relation to a constitutional body such as the JSC, whose independence Parliament is enjoined to protect".

And she said it was an "extraordinary leap" to suggest that the National Assembly had failed in its constitutional obligations.