The MK Party’s (MKP) leader in parliament, John Hlophe, has been interdicted from attending the upcoming Judicial Service Commission (JSC) interviews, the Western Cape High Court ordered on Friday.
Hlophe, formerly judge president of the Western Cape division, was the first judge to be impeached in democratic South Africa’s history. After his impeachment he joined the MKP as an MP.
He was then designated by the National Assembly as one of its six members to sit on the body that interviews and recommends candidates for appointment as judges. The move was challenged in three separate applications to the high court by the DA and NGOs Corruption Watch and Freedom Under Law. NGO AfriForum launched its own, separate application directly to the Constitutional Court.
The court’s interim interdict will remain in place until the court cases, challenging the lawfulness of his designation by the National Assembly to sit on the JSC, are ventilated in full and finally decided, either in “Part B” of the DA and Corruption Watch cases (where they want final orders from the court declaring the National Assembly’s decision was unlawful) or until the issue is determined by the Constitutional Court in AfriForum’s case
Freedom Under Law had asked the court for a final interdict, but the court instead postponed its case to be heard later, along with “Part B” of the DA and Corruption Watch case.
The court also made a punitive costs order against the MKP and Hlophe for costs in the DA’s case.
TimesLIVE
Franny Rabkin
www.timeslive.co.za
