Judge Mushtak Parker’s choice in John Hlophe’s bully pit — lie or face further threat

25 Feb 2025

The thing is, caught between the threat of violence or lying about an actual beating, is it not somehow understandable that Parker should make the second choice?

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) tribunal into suspended Western Cape High Court Judge Mushtak Parker has been postponed to 29 April for closing arguments.

On Monday, eight of the 10 judges who lodged the original complaint that Parker had lied under oath with regard to an assault in 2019 in his chambers by former judge president of the Western Cape John Hlophe, gave evidence.

The complaint to the JSC was lodged by the 10 judges in the division as well as the Cape Bar Council.

Parker, after admitting under oath to a colleague, Judge Eduard Wille, and recounting verbally the Hlophe assault to other colleagues, later recanted in another sworn affidavit supporting his abuser, Hlophe, and attacking his confidantes.

Hlophe’s bully pit

This, of course, sent a chill down the spine of the division as it indicated, in no uncertain terms, that Hlophe, their boss, would not hesitate to resort to physical violence should he be crossed.

That Hlophe had insulted various other judges in the division has been the subject of other JSC complaints. It is out there in public.

This litany of complaints by colleagues all point to a sullen man, determined to bully his way through the law, the division and the justice system through coercion and threat.

Parker wrote to the judges, swearing under oath a second time, that he had “misconstrued” what had occurred that afternoon after a tea break when he had suddenly and inexplicably been flung backwards so violently that his back snapped a key in the lock of a book cabinet in his office.

There is evidence that he received medical treatment and psychological counselling, if Hlophe should challenge the truth that has emerged.

None of the judges was interrogated by counsel on Monday, indicating that Parker might accept their versions of the shameful event.

But, will the tribunal, headed by retired Judge President of the Gauteng Division of the High Court Bernard Ngoepe and comprising Judge Phillip Boruchowitz, retired judge of the Gauteng Division of the High Court, and a Ms D Mthimunye as a non-judicial member, find Parker impeachable?

We will have to wait to hear after the arguments.

The rock is the hard place

The thing is, caught between the threat of violence or lying about an actual beating, is it not somehow understandable that Parker should make the second choice? He’s only human after all. Not so?

But, unlike the rest of us, Parker is a judge and lying in the halls of justice is the biggest no-no of them all. It’s the ultimate sin because it is lies that are the small axes that chip away at the pillars of justice and ultimately society as a whole.

“A cardinal sin,” says the justice watcher, Mbekezeli Benjamin of Judges Matter. For Judges Matter the outcome of this tribunal “could have major consequences for judicial accountability”.

We can thank the Catholic faith for the definition of a “cardinal sin”, one of seven in a list of eight drawn up by Evagrius Ponticus in the fourth century. An early influencer of note, one could say.

One sin appears to have been left out. We know about the others: gluttony, lust, greed, pride, despair, wrath, vainglory and sloth”. Perhaps “lying” was left out because sometimes people lie to preserve themselves and their lives.

In that light, Parker’s overall character glides into focus, and here a second charge the tribunal will examine – that he failed to declare during an interview for his judicial post that his law firm had siphoned off about R8-million from a client’s trust account – is the issue.

Parker was appointed to the Western Cape High Court Bench in 2017 – peak State Capture years, just to place us all in the picture.

In the meantime, Hlophe himself has, of course, been through the meat grinder of a costly impeachment, has written a book, Defying the Gallows, and recently read out a speech written by Jimmy Manyi (so bad it was good) as the now deputy president and leader of the new opposition in Parliament, Jacob Zuma’s fledgling uMkhonto Wesizwe party.

Read more: How Judge Mushtak Parker risks taking two falls over John Hlophe

Hlophe was impeached for trying to influence Constitutional Court judges in a matter relating to Zuma’s arms deal corruption trial, a saga that still hangs in the mists of time, waiting for justice to blow it away.

All the years he denied he was also one of Zuma’s meat puppets.

Parker’s character has been revealed. He too was used as the kind of tool the Zuma regime preferred in the judiciary, with Hlophe pulling the strings.

Parker’s weaknesses are his own to explain and for his counsel to perhaps excuse.

The fist or the lying tongue?

The tribunal has heard how Hlophe bullied Parker after the assault and had “suggested” that he halt any criminal action related to the violence. The then judge president had called Parker into his office and had “suggested” that he make it all “go away… or…”

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

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

“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. DM

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South Africa

Hlophe’s bully pit

The rock is the hard place

The fist or the lying tongue?