JSC to oppose Kriegler bid

2009-10-22 21:06

Cape Town - The JSC will oppose former Constitutional Court judge Johann Kriegler's court challenge to its dismissal of the dispute between that court and Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe.

"We will oppose [Kriegler]," Judicial Service Commission spokesperson Marumo Moerane told reporters in Cape Town on Thursday.

He said the commission had decided to hire Vincent Maleka, SC, and three other counsel to represent it in the case.

Kriegler's Freedom Under Law organisation has asked the Pretoria High Court to review the JSC's decision not to launch a formal inquiry into a complaint by Constitutional Court judges that Hlophe had sought to influence judgments in the now abandoned corruption case against ANC leader Jacob Zuma before he became president.

The former judge is on the record as saying conflicting allegations between Hlophe and the highest court in the land should have been settled through cross-examination.

Failure to do so caused "great harm" to the administration of justice. He also said the JSC had "malfunctioned".

The row between Hlophe and the nation's top judges dragged on for more than a year before a reconstituted JSC this year decided not to probe it further.
 

- SAPA