All eyes will be on President Cyril Ramaphosa as he prepares to act on a recommendation to suspend Western Cape judge president John Hlophe.
The Judicial Service Commission has recommended that he suspend Hlophe, who was found guilty of gross misconduct in April 2021 in a saga spanning nearly a quarter of a century.
All eyes will be on President Cyril Ramaphosa from Tuesday as he prepares to act on a recommendation to suspend Western Cape judge president John Hlophe.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has recommended that he suspend Hlophe, who was found guilty of gross misconduct in April 2021 in a saga spanning nearly a quarter of a century.
Hlophe is the first judge in democratic SA to face impeachment.
On Monday night, the JSC released a statement after designates of the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces had met.
In terms of SA law, a judge may be removed from office if the JSC finds that he or she suffers from incapacity, is grossly incompetent or guilty of gross misconduct, and a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly supports removal.
Such a motion has yet to be voted upon in parliament, so any suspension will be provisional.
The JSC team "deliberated and resolved" to advise Ramaphosa to suspend Hlophe in terms of section 177(3) of the constitution, which legislates judges' removal pending the result of a motion — an impeachment vote — in parliament.
The section directs that the president may suspend a judge on the JSC's advice when that judge is the subject of a removal procedure in the National Assembly.
"This is following the decision of the JSC on 25 August 2021 ... that judge president Hlophe is guilty of gross misconduct," the statement said.
The judicial conduct tribunal, a smaller body of the JSC, found Hlophe guilty of gross misconduct in April. Its decision was referred to the mother body and endorsed in August. According to reports, eight JSC members backed the guilty finding and four did not.
While the JSC reached an adverse finding against Hlophe in 2021, the complaint against him lodged by a full bench of the apex court was filed 14 years ago, in 2008.
The top court's justices complained that Hlophe sought to influence the outcome of a pending decision relating to corruption charges against former president Jacob Zuma, when he was ANC president, but not yet head of state.
At the time, the Constitutional Court ruling was widely viewed as crucial to Zuma's prospects of becoming president.
