Hlophe being on JSC will taint selection process of new judges, DA tells court
The DA argued that it was irrational for someone deemed unfit for judicial office to then appoint someone to such a position.
The Democratic Alliance (DA)'s Helen Zille (centre) and party supporters outside the Western Cape High Court on 5 September 2024 challenging John Hlophe’s designation to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). Picture: Lindsay Dentlinger/EWN
CAPE TOWN - The Democratic Alliance (DA) said that if impeached judge, John Hlophe, was allowed to sit on the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) as a representative of Parliament, it would taint the selection process for new judges.
The party is one of three organisations before the Western Cape High Court on Thursday challenging his designation to the body that interviews candidates to fill vacancies in the country’s courts.
The DA was first to lodge an application for an urgent interdict to stop Hlophe from serving on the JSC. The party’s federal chairperson Helen Zille explains why. LD pic.twitter.com/3JeaModxAY
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) September 5, 2024
The DA argued that it was irrational for someone deemed unfit for judicial office to then appoint someone to such a position.
ALSO READ: Designating Hlophe to JSC a 'deeply irrational' decision by the National Assembly, says FUL
The Judicial Service Commission is expected to hold its next round of judicial interviews next month.
But advocate Ismail Jaimie for the DA told the court that if MK MP, Hlophe, was allowed to take up his seat as a commissioner, it would forever cast a pall over the chosen candidates.
A full bench of judges from the Gauteng division has been seconded to the Western Cape to hear this matter.
Three Gauteng justices - Selby, Collis and Daffue are hearing this matter. Hlophe was the country's longest-serving judge president of this very court. LD
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) September 5, 2024
Jaimie said that the National Assembly had a duty to foster respect for the judiciary and to enforce its moral authority.
He further argued that because this was a precedent-setting case, it did not mean it was immune from constitutional scrutiny.
The DA seeks to interdict Hlophe's immediate designation to the body, pending a judicial review of the constitutionality of his selection.
Just as the MK Party argues it has the right to select a candidate in keeping with the will of its voters, Jaime said that so too do DA voters deserve a candidate who’s above reproach.
Earlier on Thursday, legal NGO, Freedom Under Law, argued that the National Assembly merely rubberstamped Hlophe’s nomination by the MK Party, without taking into account the rationality of that decision.