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DA: Statement by Dene Smuts, Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, on Parliamentary questions to Jeff Radebe (05/02/2010)
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is putting a Parliamentary question on the order paper asking Justice Minister Jeff Radebe whether it is true, as reported by the Mail & Guardian today, that he asked the Acting Judge President of the Western Cape to agree to appointing former NDPP Mokotedi Mpshe to the Cape bench in an acting capacity; whether he approached the senior judge of the North West Division, where adv Mpshe is to serve, and whether he approached any other Judge President in any other division.
The comment attributed to Radebe's spokesperson Tlali Tlali, to the effect that the Constitution and the law allows the Minister to make these appointments (the Constitution allows him to do so after consultation with the relevant senior judge), does not address the perception that inevitably arises that this appointment is a reward for Adv Mpshe's decision as NDPP to drop the prosecution of Mr Zuma.
Other questions already on the order paper concern the Western Cape's absentee Judge President, Judge Hlophe, who has been granted long leave despite his prolonged absences from the bench in the course of the dispute between himself and the Constitutional Court judges that served before the JSC until that body ducked its duty and declined to complete its enquiry.
The Minister cannot treat the courts like a chess board on which he plays political end games, with judges put into play or out of play like so many chess pieces.
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