Hoffman’s complaint to JSC against Chief Justice

6th August 2013

Advocate Paul Hoffman SC, director of the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa, has published his complaint to the JSC against the Chief Justice following the CJ’s controversial speech at an Advocates for Transformation function last month. In the complaint, published on the Ifaisa site, Hoffman says that by making and disseminating the speech ‘the Chief Justice brought the judiciary and the high office which he holds into disrepute in that he descended into the arena of contestation and controversy in respect of issues which are pending in the High Court and which, in the light of their constitutional nature, are likely to require final determination in the Constitutional Court’. Such conduct, argues Hoffman, ‘is in conflict with the provisions of clause 10(1) of the Code of Judicial Conduct for Judges’. He adds: ‘In the speech the Chief Justice involved himself in the politics and policy aspects of affirmative action measures in a manner unbecoming of a sitting judge in that he adopted a position on various political questions and matters of policy in a manner which undermined the proper function, the standing and the integrity of the judiciary. Such conduct is in conflict with the provisions of clause 10(7) of the Code of Judicial Conduct for Judges.’