How Judge Mushtak Parker risks taking two falls over John Hlophe

24 Feb 2025

Western Cape High Court Judge Mushtak Parker made damning claims against impeached judge president John Hlophe, who allegedly pushed him into a bookshelf. Now Parker is being investigated for denying that the incident took place.

There are two ways Western Cape High Court Judge Mushtak Parker, who has earned about R8-million while on suspension since 2020, has taken the fall for former judge president John Hlophe.

First, against a bookcase in his chambers after Hlophe allegedly pushed him violently, and second, in denying the event occurred.

Parker faces two complaints at a Judicial Service Commission (JSC) conduct tribunal. The most egregious is that he lied under oath while deposing a sworn affidavit to a fellow judge that he had been physically assaulted by Hlophe in his chambers and had fallen against a cabinet, snapping off a key and injuring himself.

Parker also verbally informed other colleagues of the assault on 25 February 2019 only to retract the serious allegation a year later stating that he had “misconstrued” what had occurred between himself and Hlophe.

Hlophe the bully

The tribunal, which kicked off on Monday, 24 February 2025, heard how Hlophe had bullied Parker after the incident and had “suggested” that he halt any criminal action related to the assault.

The assault occurred in Parker’s chambers on 25 February 2019 after a perceived slight by the pugnacious judge president’s (JP) then-wife, Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe, whose robe Parker had tugged to attract her attention in the tea room.

Judge Mark Sher told the tribunal that the attack had deeply traumatised Parker, an elderly man. Hlophe had insulted Parker, accusing him of being “racist” and had used considerable force during the assault.

“Judge Parker said he was sitting behind his desk when the JP entered his office. He stood up and the JP attacked him, pushing him into a cabinet where he hit his back on the key, breaking it, before falling to the ground,” Sher told the tribunal.

Hlophe himself has since been impeached, swapping his red robe occasionally for combat fatigues as the deputy president and leader of the new opposition in Parliament, Jacob Zuma’s, fledgling uMkhonto WeSizwe party.

Read more: Huge majority of MPs vote to impeach Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe

The photographs don’t lie

After Hlophe had allegedly got to him, Parker went as far as accusing another colleague who spoke out, Judge Judith Cloete, to whom he had initially unburdened himself, of being part of a group of people who now sought to “discredit” himself “and the JP”.

She said she had been “saddened” by the content of Parker’s letter to her accusing her of this.

The tribunal has been provided with photographic evidence of the broken key to the cabinet stacked with law publications in Parker’s chambers and taken by Judge Eduard Wille with his cellphone.

On Monday, Wille said he had not been one of 12 judges who had written to the JSC to express their unwillingness to sit on the bench with Parker, who was facing serious allegations of misconduct.

He had preferred to do a “Switzerland” on the matter and remain neutral. John Hlophe, as Western Cape JP, had bullied his way through the division, causing endless drama and damage before his removal.

The Parker incident was a daily dose of “fear and loathing” in the corridors and offices of the courts.

Wille recalled how “after tea” on the day of the assault, Parker had visited his chambers as these were close by since Parker had moved out of his office after a mysterious fire.

Without going into the sordid details and foul language (contained in a heap of affidavits), Wille explained that he had taken down Parker’s statement on his computer and had also photographed the broken key. There were two signed versions of the Parker affidavit, he told the tribunal.

At the time, he had also discussed the matter with a colleague, Francois van Zyl, as he had sought advice.

“Life works in mysterious ways,” he said on Monday.

While upgrading his mobile phone over the weekend “due to load shedding” he had come across another photograph he had taken, this one of the signed Parker affidavit, one copy of which he had kept.

“I had not realised that I had taken a photograph of the log I had made to Van Zyl and the signed affidavit made before a commissioner of oaths and that Parker had given to me,” he said.

Second complaint

Parker faces a second complaint of misconduct by the Cape Bar Council which alleges he did not disclose pertinent information during his application to become a judge.

This was that that his former law firm had been accused by the Legal Practice Council of misusing R8-million of a client’s money by running a deficit in the trust account.

Parker, said his colleague Sher on Monday, had spoken to him about the Hlophe assault more than once. He had experienced it as “humiliating”, had received psychological counselling and medical treatment for the injury to his back.

The tribunal continues its inquiry until 27 February. DM

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South Africa

Hlophe the bully

The photographs don’t lie

Second complaint