Judge President John Hlophe was suspended from his position as judge president of the Western Cape high court and as a sitting judge by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday pending National Assembly proceedings to have him removed as a judge.
Section 177 makes provision for a judge to be removed from the bench for one of three grounds: Incapacity, gross incompetence, or gross misconduct. According to the statement the suspension was triggered by gross misconduct and it quotes the part of the Constitution that deals with the removal of a judge who is found guilty of gross misconduct.
The Presidency’s statement has cautioned that 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 Hlophe completes all part-heard matters and reserved judgments.and complexity of the matter, President Ramaphosa took time to carefully consider all the permutations of the Judicial Services Commission’s recommendations, including obtaining guidance from an independent legal opinion.
“The Judicial Conduct Tribunal concluded in July that Judge President Hlophe’s conduct breached the provisions of section 165 of the Constitution by improperly attempting to influence the two Justices of the Constitutional Court to violate their oaths of office. At the time of his appointment to the bench in 1995 Hlophe, now 62, was hailed as the youngest judge to be appointed to the Western Cape high court. Highly qualified he holds an LLM and PhD from Cambridge.
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