MK Party, Hlophe come under fire in court for slanderous remarks about judiciary

CAPE TOWN - The MK Party and its parliamentary leader, John Hlophe, have come under fire in the Western Cape High Court for slanderous remarks about the judiciary. 

Judge Selby Baqwa said that their recent public statements and utterances bordered on contempt of court.

MK and Hlophe were back before the court on Friday to apply for leave to appeal an interim interdict which, in October, barred Hlophe from interviewing for new judges as a commissioner of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

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Hlophe was recently quoted as saying he had been gagged by a captured judiciary. 

The Democratic Alliance (DA), Freedom Under Law (FUL) and Corruption Watch have all pointed the court to recent public statements made by the MK Party, and utterances by its parliamentary leader following the interdict it granted. 

Corruption Watch's advocate Geoff Budlender said the court must take into account what it’s termed scandalous, contemptuous, disgraceful and defamatory remarks.

"It's time for the court to demonstrate that this sort of conduct won’t be tolerated, and it will have consequences."

Both justices Baqwa and Colleen Collis pushed the applicants to explain the remarks. 

Hlophe's advocate, Menzi Simelane, said the statements had to be seen in the context of Hlophe feeling that his arguments were not being sufficiently heard by the courts, rather than suggesting something untoward.

"To express a view that the judiciary is captured would have been in the context of explaining that there’s strain being felt by Dr Hlophe."

Judgment in the matter has been reserved.