MK party goes to court to stop JSC hearings

By Zukile Majova
Political Editor

The MK party has applied to the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to stop the Judicial Service Commission’s hearings.

This is the latest development in the party’s attempt to get its deputy president, John Hlophe, to be allowed to be part of parliament’s delegation that will interview future judges.

The JSC hearings are scheduled for 7 October and will feature 54 candidates being interviewed to fill over two dozen vacancies in the courts and related institutions.

The South Gauteng High Court is due to hear the MK party’s application on Friday.

The party won a small victory on Wednesday when the Constitutional Court dismissed AfrForum’s application for direct access to the court after it asked for Hlophe to be removed from the list of MPs that will sit in the JSC hearings.

The Constitutional Court ruled that AfriForum’s case did not fall within its exclusive jurisdiction.

The MK party celebrated this victory because the Western Cape High Court had earlier interdicted Hlophe’s inclusion pending the outcome of the AfriForum case at the Constitutional Court.

Hlophe, who is the former judge president of the Cape High Court, was impeached by parliament earlier this year.

In 2008, two Constitutional Court justices accused Hlophe of trying to influence them in a case involving former president Jacob Zuma.

On Monday the JSC rejected Hlophe’s proposal for the hearings to be postponed until the legal wrangle is resolved.

So far, the DA has prevented Hlophe from participating in the upcoming interviews, but the court has not instructed parliament to remove Hlophe from its oversight committee.

Pictured above: John Hlophe with former president Jacob Zuma.

Source: X