JCC issues scathing ruling against senior judge

Limpopo High Court (Polokwane) Judge President George Phatudi acted in breach of judicial conduct rules by presiding over cases involving his former client, the Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC) has ruled. According to News24, the committee, led by retired Constitutional Court Justice Chris Jafta, found that Phatudi had wilfully and grossly negligently violated the Code of Judicial Conduct when he sat as a judge in cases involving the same piece of land he had previously litigated as an attorney. ‘It is beyond question that these facts would lead a reasonable person to suspect that the attorney, who was previously involved in litigation about the same erf, would not decide the matter impartially,’ Jafta wrote in the scathing 23-page ruling. The complaint stems from events in 2017 and 2021 when Phatudi presided over High Court land disputes involving his former client, Sello Kgolane. In 2013, while practising as an attorney, Phatudi successfully defended Kgolane in the Nebo Magistrate’s Court in a dispute over property ownership. Four years later, Kgolane approached the High Court, seeking the transfer of the exact property into his name, citing various state parties, including the Makhuduthamaga Municipality. The case was assigned to Phatudi, who was a sitting judge at the time.

The complainant, Advocate Sekgame Tebeile, represented the municipality in the case. He alleged that Phatudi had threatened his client with a costs order if the case was postponed to allow for a formal recusal application, leading the municipality to abandon the recusal bid. Phatudi disputed this version of events before the JCC but acknowledged his previous involvement with the client. He argued he had committed no misconduct because he only made ‘procedural rulings’ and never determined the main merits of the case, according to News24. ‘Because of the nature of this application as one being for intervention in a matter that has already been referred to trial and where another judge would entertain the merits, I saw no need to recuse myself,’ Phatudi stated in his response. The JCC rejected this defence entirely, delivering a particularly harsh assessment of Phatudi’s reasoning. Jafta wrote: ‘The respondent deliberately sat in the matter and thereby breached (the code). He tried to justify his conduct by saying he made procedural orders. ‘As a senior judge, he ought to have known that the position he took in relation to procedural orders was plainly wrong in law.’

The ruling was particularly critical of Phatudi’s status as a division leader, noting that he ‘signed his response as the Judge President of the Limpopo Division, which means he embraced the contents of his response as the leader of that division.’ In his ruling, Jafta noted significant deficiencies in the current legislative framework governing judicial conduct, highlighting the broader systemic issues the case exposed, notes News24. ‘There is absolutely no mechanism in place to hold accountable judges who commit ordinary and negligent violations of the code. This is one of the many deficiencies in the Act,’ he wrote. The constitutional implications of Phatudi’s conduct drew particularly stern criticism from the JCC. ‘When the respondent continued to sit in the relevant matter, he not only contravened the code, but he also breached his primary duty to uphold the Constitution at all times when exercising judicial power,’ Jafta wrote. ‘His conduct constituted a violation of the Constitution itself. The fact that he granted orders of a procedural nature does not mitigate the seriousness of his conduct, which has the potential to erode public confidence in the administration of justice.' The JCC ordered Phatudi to write an apology to Tebeile, submit to a reprimand by the Chief Justice, and receive a written warning from the Chief Justice.

Full News24 report