Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe says he is saddened by the possibility of being removed from the Bench. This after Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Justice & Correctional Services recently resolved to recommend his removal.

The JSC found him guilty of gross misconduct and he was subsequently suspended by President Cyril Ramaphosa in December 2022.

The National Assembly is expected to convene a special sitting in January to vote on the judge’s impeachment.

As previously reported, the JSC has also decided Hlophe should face a second Judicial Conduct Tribunal for potentially impeachable misconduct – this time in relation to his dispute with his deputy Patricia Goliath that led to a complaint and counter-complaint to the JSC in 2020.

In an interview with eNCA, Hlophe said Parliament failed to inform him of the decision taken to recommended his removal from the Bench.

‘All I know is what I have read in the newspapers. It comes as no surprise because the matter has a history, it has turns and twists,’ he said.

The Citizen reports that he said the assertion labelling him ‘the face of judicial impropriety’ was more about public perception than factual evidence.

‘That’s what the detractors wanted,’ he said in reference to retired Constitutional Court Judge Johann Kriegler and the DA.

‘(Kriegler) is very vociferous, anything to do with Hlophe he is always there… he is one of the detractors. The other detractors, obviously, were politicians. I have been openly called by the Democratic Alliance’s Helen Zille an ANC deployee (but) I am a sitting judge. What an insult,’ he said.

Full report in The Citizen