Ramaphosa suspends Judge President Hlophe

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President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe pending a decision by the National Assembly on whether to impeach him on charges of serious misconduct, the presidency said on Wednesday.

The decision comes five months after the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) advised the president to take the step.

“In order to ensure continuity and stability in the work of the divisional high court, the suspension which is in effect immediately, is on condition that Judge President Hlophe completes all part-heard matters and reserved judgments,” Ramaphosa’s office said.

It attributed the delay in heeding the recommendation of the JSC to the president needing to “carefully consider all the permutations of the JSC recommendation, including obtaining guidance from an independent legal opinion”.

The Hlophe misconduct saga stretches back 14 years.

In 2008, a complaint was laid by judges of the constitutional court after he approached justices Chris Jafta and Bess Nkabinde separately in an apparent attempt to sway them to rule on matters related to Jacob Zuma’s arms deal corruption charges in a manner favourable to the then presidential hopeful.

In April 2021, the judicial conduct tribunal found Hlophe guilty of gross misconduct — in a ruling upheld by the JSC that August — while also recommending his impeachment.

Hlophe turned to the high court to challenge the decision and lost. He secured an undertaking from the JSC to place a decision on suspension on hold pending the high court ruling, but that this reprieve did not extend to the appeal he subsequently filed.

In court papers, he repeated the argument he made in the high court review application that the JSC risked violating the very principle of the independence of the judiciary it sought to protect by recommending his removal. 

Ramaphosa last week filed an application to the constitutional court to challenge the findings of an independent panel, headed by retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, that he face an impeachment inquiry over the so-called Farmgate scandal.

The panel was appointed after the opposition African Transformation Movement brought an impeachment motion. In papers filed in response to the president’s application this week, the ATM argued that the president should be denied direct access to the apex court, and that the matter should first serve before the high court.

In this case, the nearest high court would be the Western Cape division.