Magistrate to be removed for alleged misconduct

South Africa's parliamentary Committee on Justice & Constitutional Development will recommend to the National Assembly to remove a magistrate who was found to have lied to a judge and changed an accused’s plea without justification. The committee will also recommend to the House that another magistrate be suspended, pending a disciplinary hearing. News24 reports that the committee last week expressed concern over the salaries magistrates get paid while they are suspended and called on the Magistrates Commission to investigate the matter. The chairperson of the commission’s Ethics Committee, Naome Manaka, said it had finished the disciplinary proceedings against Lenyenye, Limpopo Magistrate Renie Govender, and recommended her permanent removal to Parliament. The misconduct charges against Govender emanated from a High Court review of a criminal case over which she presided. According to the judgment, Govender was dishonest and she brought the name of the magistracy into disrepute. She was charged with providing false information to the reviewing judge and changing an accused’s plea without legal justification.

News24 reports according to the commission’s presentation to the select committee last month, Govender was paid more than R1m since her suspension in December 2023. The commission also asked that the committee recommend to the National Assembly that TF Kekana, a magistrate at the Secunda District Court since 2015, be suspended. ‘The allegations against Ms Kekana are that she does not submit weekly and monthly statistics, that she does not comply with office hours, and that, most importantly, on one occasion, she had met litigants within the court building and later in their business premises attempted to negotiate a mediation between the parties, with those particular complainants. Kekana has been charged with misconduct based on those allegations,’ Manaka informed the committee.