High court gives green light to John Hlophe impeachment vote at eleventh hour

21 Feb 2024

The colloquialism about the fat lady singing is usually deployed when a situation appears to be nearing its conclusion, and in the case of John Hlophe, it was a Gauteng High Court judge, Sulet Potterill, who sang shortly after 9am.

The urgent application by Hlophe, the former Judge President of the Western Cape, and drunk-driving judge Nkola Motata to halt proceedings was struck from the roll at the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday by Potterill as a self-created emergency.

Hlophe previously headed the division which is why Potterill heard the matter filed by Hlophe and Motata last week.

Parliament said this week it was ready to proceed with the vote as current laws enabled this.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Parliament ready to vote on suspended Judge President John Hlophe’s impeachment

Potterill opined that Hlophe’s enrolling of the action the day before the National Assembly was due to vote “is exactly bringing an action upon the hour of reckoning”.

If Hlophe had wanted to avoid legislation, as he alleged, it was “conspicuously absent” that he sought an undertaking from Parliament not to proceed with the vote pending his Constitutional Court case, she added.

Time as long as rope

In November, the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services adopted a report by the Judicial Service Commission recommending Hlophe’s removal, after which the disgraced judge had requested the apex court to declare the committee’s process unconstitutional.

It should be noted that Hlophe was not an ordinary litigant and had heard “urgent matters and knows the practices and laws”, said Potterill.

His application was “manifestly unreasonable and self-created”, she added.

The decision by Potterill was made just hours before the National Assembly was due to vote on Hlophe and Motata’s impeachment at 4pm today (Wednesday) after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Budget speech.

The ANC and DA will be supporting both judges’ removal while the EFF does not. DM

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South Africa

Time as long as rope