Calls for opposition leader's removal from JSC

Civil society organisations have called for controversial South African opposition leader leader Julius Malema to be removed from the Judicial Services Commission (JSC), saying his recent criminal conviction and history of legal transgressions make him unfit to serve. TimesLIVE reports that in a joint statement on Friday, Freedom Under Law, Defend our Democracy and the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution said his conviction on charges relating to the unlawful possession and discharge of a firearm in public ‘demonstrates that he is not a fit and proper person’ to sit on the JSC. The groups said this was not the Economic Freedom Front (EFF) leader's first run-in with the law this year. In August, the Equality Court ruled some of his statements amounted to hate speech, while in May, the Western Cape High Court upheld Parliament’s finding that Malema had breached its code of ethics for using a JSC interview in 2021 for personal political interests. ‘Though it has also been reported that Mr Malema is planning appeals against both the firearms conviction and the hate speech ruling, these are nonetheless serious findings made by our High Courts that Mr Malema has acted not only unlawfully, but criminally,’ the organisations said. They warned that Malema’s continued presence on the JSC threatened the credibility of the institution and the judiciary itself. The groups took issue with comments made on Tuesday when the EFF described the case as a ‘political persecution’ and accused the judiciary of being aligned with ‘racist organisations.’ Malema implied the magistrate who convicted him was racist. They called on Malema to step down as a member of the JSC. ‘Should he decline to do so, we call on the National Assembly to take steps to remove him as a member of the JSC,’ the organisations added.