/2007

Allegations of improper conduct against a top judge have divided South Africa's legal profession along racial lines with black colleagues rejecting calls for his resignation by white advocates. Criticism of Cape judge president John Hlophe by retired judge Johann Kriegler has received the backing of nine non-black advocates but drew flak on Tuesday from the country's Black Lawyers Association (BLA). "His (Kriegler's) unsolicited and gratuitous attack on a sitting judge reveals him to be intemperate and disorderly in his outburst, conduct absolutely unbecoming of the dignity of the bench," the Cape Times newspaper quoted the BLA as saying.

Kriegler, a former Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court judge, questioned Hlophe's suitability for the bench in a letter to the Sunday press. Hlophe has been the subject of a probe by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), a judges review body, for accepting payments from the Oasis group of companies which he granted permission to sue a fellow judge for defamation. Hlophe had claimed he received permission from deceased Justice Minister Dullah Omar to moonlight for Oasis, and was not sanctioned by the JSC though it last week found his explanation to have been "unsatisfactory in certain respects".

"The man's reputation is in tatters, his name has become synonymous with scandal in high places, his public utterances and conduct are an ongoing delight to journalists and an embarrassment to his colleagues," wrote Kriegler. "Judge Hlophe is not a fit and proper person to be a judge." While the BLA said Kriegler should be sanctioned for this "uncollegial attack", nine prominent advocates signed a letter published in newspapers on Tuesday supporting his conclusion.

"We believe that there cannot be public confidence in the continuation in office now of Judge Hlophe," said the letter which requested his resignation. The nine stressed they had initially supported Hlophe's nomination as a judge in 1994 and for the judge presidency "lest we be accused of personal antipathy or racism". Race continues to be a bane of South Africa's justice system 13 years after the fall of the white minority apartheid regime, with frequent accusations of biased rulings and an untransformed bench.