SANEF slams Judicial Service Commission

Author: Kwanele Sibanda
Publish: 28 July 2009
The South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) expressed shock at the decision made by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to go ahead and hold a three-man sub-committee preliminary hearing into the charges and counter-charges involving constitutional court judges and the Cape Judge President, John Hlophe, behind closed doors.

In a statement issued 24 July 2009, SANEF says: "The decision flaunts that made by the High Court in April by Judge Nigel Willis, overturning an earlier attempt by the JSC to close the hearing to the public and the media to protect the dignity of the offices of the Chief Justice and the Cape Judge President."
Media groups and the FXI made an urgent application to the court that in the interest of "open justice" and the fact that the issues were of high public significance, the hearing should be conducted in public.
Judge Willis dismissed the commission's argument that opening the hearings could harm the dignity of the offices involved. He said the JSC had not satisfied the commission's own rules, in terms of which it must show "good cause" to exclude the media.
He said: "Fundamental principle for proceedings of this nature is that the public should have a right to be there. By allowing the public access to the hearing in open court, the entire judiciary will be enhanced but not diminished."
The complaint by the Constitutional Court is that Hlophe allegedly tried to influence Justice Bess Nkabinde and acting Justice Chris Jafta in a matter relating to the legal process invoked by now President Jacob Zuma in contesting the various criminal charges against him.
In turn, Hlophe complained that the Constitutional Court judges had infringed his rights and undermined the judiciary by making public the fact that they had laid a complaint against him before he was aware of it.
Judge Willis's decision was given by the Supreme Court of Appeal on 31 March 2009, when it ruled that the Constitutional Court judges were not obliged by law to keep their complaints against Hlophe a secret, and that if the assertion against Hlophe were true, it is clear that this would not be unlawful.
SANEF has said it deplores the JSC decision to ignore the decisions of these two courts by deciding to hold the preliminary inquiry in private - especially as a JSC official has stated that the transcript of the proceedings may not be made public, indicating the public may never know what actually occurred and was said at the hearing.
In handing down his decision, Judge Willis dealt with a fundamental principle underlying constitutional media freedom that reinforces the ability of the media to gather and disseminate news and information and protect the public's right to be informed.