High Court 'racism' probed

2005-02-14 21:22

Johannesburg - A subcommittee has been appointed to investigate allegations of racism in the Cape High Court, said Chief Justice Arthur on Monday.

He said he had asked the committee to give urgent attention to the matter and report to the heads of courts as soon as possible.

Cape provincial division Judge-President John Hlophe compiled a report claiming racism and handed it to Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla.

City Press newspaper reported on Sunday that the 43-page document contained several allegations of racism.

There were claims that black judges who'd made mistakes were ridiculed; that black judges were told to stop speaking Zulu to each other in the chambers of a white judge and that whites-only lunches were being held.

The Cape Bar Council, in a joint statement with the General Council of the Bar (GCB), has denied the allegations.

They said although neither of them had received a copy of the report, if the newspaper article was correctly based on the document, the allegations could not go unanswered.

They said it was not true that there was strong opposition by the Cape Bar to the appointment of black judges and that in the past 10 years the Cape Bar had never supported a black candidate.

Among the black judges whose appointments had been positively supported by the Cape Bar were those of J Motala, J Msimang, Adv DO Potgieter SC, and J Waglay.

"Moreover, the Judge-President may have forgotten that the Cape Bar supported his own appointment to the position of Judge-President in March 2000," they said.

The Cape Bar Council said it was not aware of black judges being ridiculed by its members.

The councils said it was "unfortunate" that Hlophe should apparently have over the years kept a growing catalogue of perceived complaints concerning members of the Cape Bar rather than raising them with the Bar Council as and when they occurred.

"We would prefer the Judge-President to engage constructively with us in our endeavours to transform. We have kept him regularly informed of our transformation initiatives," they said.

"Despite the discouragement represented by a report such as that which the Judge-President has apparently delivered to the minister, we will persist in our commitment to transformation and to justice.

These goals are more important than the personalities involved."

- SAPA