Dr John Hlophe was sworn in as a Member of Parliament in June. Picture: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers
Dr John Hlophe has hit back at detractors following his appointment to the Judicial Service Commission this week.
Hlophe, the first judge to be removed from the National Assembly bench after he was found guilty of gross misconduct and a member of Jacob Zuma's Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, was appointed to the role amid must criticism from various sectors and political parties.
In a lengthy statement issued on Friday, Hlophe told nay-sayers that he was ready to take them on.
"Regarding their threats of a lawsuit to have me removed from the JSC, I say to them; Bring it on," Hlophe said.
Responding to Freedom Under Law's declaration to legally challenge his appointment, Hlophe said he was not surprised.
"Throughout my long judicial career I was singled out, targeted and became an object of venomous racist hatred by white supremacist NGOs such as Freedom Under Law.
“I was appointed to head the Western Cape judicial division, the most pro-apartheid and untransformed bench in our country for over a period of 20 years. As both an academic and a jurist my uncompromising views on transformation and decolonisation of our jurisprudence and legal institutions were a matter of public record and did attract retaliatory response from racists and other anti-transformation elements within our society.
"In this context the campaign to have me removed as a judge surely has its genesis in the anti-African, anti-transformation white supremacist views of my detractors. The farcical impeachment and deliberate flouting of legal processes has done more permanent and long-lasting damage to our judicial system than anything I could have done in my years of service as a judicial officer.
“It is indeed ironic that when the enemies of transformation came gunning for me, they received the most solid support from the ruling ANC of Ramaphosa which has hitherto only paid lip service to black liberation and transformation. The ANC allowed itself to be hijacked and weaponised as an instrument of black oppression under the guise of the 'rule of law.' Fortunately, not all is lost," Hlophe said.
He added that there were African National Congress members in Parliament with sufficient integrity and backbone who do not pay allegiance to white supremacy and capture.
He likened the calls be his detractors to abuses long denounced by the British Parliament in 1774.
He said the Democratic Alliance objected to his appointment to the JSC on the spurious grounds that “The EFF and MK wish to tear down the independent judiciary, which the DA works to protect.”
Hlophe said in the DA’s lunatic ruminations, certain parties can be disqualified from serving on committees of Parliament based solely on a caricature of their ideologies by their opponents.
"The Section 19 Constitution rights of their voters mean nothing to these folks who have utter contempt for the rights of black people. The DA was emboldened by its capture of a segment of the sellout leadership of the ANC of Ramaphosa and is now labouring under the delusion that it can wipe out the rights of the MK Party and the EFF with a stroke of a pen.
“The DA makes further hogwash statements that: ‘While it is the prerogative of political parties to nominate persons to serve on the JSC, it cannot stand that a person is allowed to serve on the same body that found him guilty of gross misconduct while he was a judge, resulting in his impeachment’, this is a naked attempt to introduce additional qualifications on Members of Parliament that are not found anywhere in the text of the Constitution, namely, that a judge previously impeached by Parliament may not serve on the JSC as an MP even if he is properly elected by the citizens to serve. There is no basis for the DA’s nonsensical theories,” he said.
Hlophe issued a word of warning to those who have underestimated him:
“For over 29 years of service in the judiciary I was prevented by judicial ethics from responding publicly to the slanderous, false and outrageous lies circulated by these arrogant propagandists of the apartheid legal culture now masquerading as champions of our constitutional order - whose only asset is their race rather the forensic abilities of decent and fair commentary on issues relating to me.
“I could not respond when fabricated lies were widely circulated about me with reckless abandon. I shall serve on the JSC because I intend to ensure that judges appointed to the bench are free from the colonial logic of apartheid apologists like Kriegler and Chachalia.
“I intend to promote judges who are keen to get out of these prisons of apartheid proponents. I will conduct my duties to the people of South Africa with absolute integrity, absolute fealty to the Constitution and without fear or favour.
“I am now free from the shackles of the judicial ‘lockjaw’ and I stand ready to deal directly, thoroughly and effectively with these proponents and beneficiaries of the apartheid legal system who now parade themselves as proponents of constitutionalism when in fact they hanker to control our legal system so that it remains trapped in the colonial legal culture which they are comfortable with.
“I intend to promote the appointment of judges who are independent, impartial and fearless and can stand the demands of our constitutional times rather than those who are awed by apartheid legal precedence and cow to raving bullies like Kriegler.
“All that I will demand is that judges who are appointed to serve on our judiciary are persons prepared to fight for a transformed legal culture that champions and values our freedom,” he said.
IOL