Hlope 'should resign'
2007-10-09 10:05
Cape Town - Eight senior advocates from the Cape Bar, some of them former acting judges, have publicly called on Cape Judge President John Hlophe to quit.
"We believe that there cannot be public confidence in the continuation in office now of Judge Hlophe," they said in a letter published in the Cape Times on Tuesday.
The eight, all senior counsel, also questioned the conduct of the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) in its probe into Hlophe.
The advocates are Schalk Burger, Michael Fitzgerald, Jeremy Gauntlett, Peter Hodes, Rob Petersen, Les Rose-Innes, Nic Treurnicht, Henri Viljoen and Renata Williams.
Some of them have served as chairpersons of the national body of advocates, the General Council of the Bar.
'Inappropriate'
Their comments follow the JSC's decision last week not to continue its inquiry into Hlophe's receipt of money from the Oasis Management Group, despite finding that his explanation was unsatisfactory.
This despite the JSC's finding that Hlophe's failure to disclose his relationship with Oasis - at the time he gave it permission to sue fellow Cape judge Siraj Desai - was "inappropriate".
The eight advocates said that for nearly two years, they had viewed with "deep concern" the lodging with the JSC of a series of complaints against Hlophe.
Quoting former Constitutional Court Judge Johann Kriegler, who wrote in a Sunday newspaper that Hlophe was guilty of grossly improper conduct and was not fit to be a judge, the eight said they supported Kriegler's analysis and conclusions.
"We do so with heavy hearts," they said.
"In all the circumstances, we believe the right thing for Judge Hlophe to do is to resign as judge president and as a judge.
"As regards the JSC, we find it puzzling that despite its (unanimous) characterisation of Judge Hlophe's responses [on the Oasis issue] as 'unsatisfactory', it (by majority vote) decided to desist from requiring him to be examined in relation to these answers.
"Public confidence in the JSC as principled upholder of judicial independence and integrity may not have been served by these events."
- SAPA