Coercion won't change briefing patterns - would-be judge

A Business Day report notes Farber was one of 10 candidates vying for five spaces on the North Gauteng and South Gauteng High Courts. Transformation was the big theme yesterday, with candidates being grilled on what they understood by transformation and what they had done to show they were committed to it, the report notes. Farber said skewed briefing patterns (where attorneys briefed mostly white and male counsel) could not be changed through force. It was something that had to 'come from the heart'. He said that clients sometimes imposed constraints on whom would be brought on as juniors. So without the willingness of attorneys, clients and advocates to participate, transformation would be a 'dismal failure'. An equally important part of transformation was ensuring that the judiciary had competent, skilled judges, he said. There were cases where litigants would divert their case to arbitration on the day the case was due to be heard in the High Court, because of a perception that the presiding judge was incompetent, he said. Whether that perception was true, it meant the public and profession were losing out, he said. Arbitration orders were not made public, and therefore did not set precedent. Full Business Day report

Aspiring judges have to be prepared for anything at JSC hearings as two found out yesterday when one was quizzed about being a Broederbond member and another about a kiss from convicted druglord Glenn Agliotti, notes a report in The Times. Advocate and Acting Judge Kiki Bailey, one of only two women candidates, explained what happened during a chance encounter with Agliotti at the Brett Kebble murder trial at the South Gauteng High Court. She was with an acting judge and another judge when Agliotti called her by name and greeted her with a kiss. She told the panel she was 'shocked'. 'I met him in the '80s at church. I was very upset,' she said, adding that she explained the situation to her fellow judges in the tea room. Advocate Johannes Kruger (64), a member of Lawyers for Human Rights, was grilled about his right-wing past. He was asked by South Gauteng Deputy Judge President Phineas Mojapelo about his membership of the Afrikaner Broederbond. Kruger said that when he was approached to join the organisation it seemed a normal thing to do because he was from a 'typical platteland community'. He told the panel that he was involved in talks with the ANC in Lusaka when the party was banned, and drank and ate biltong with ANC members for 'nights on end'. High-profile lawyer Ike Motloung was also interviewed, according to the report. Mojapelo grilled Motloung - Molemo 'Jub Jub' Maarohanye's lawyer - about being insensitive to the families of the four schoolboys killed when his client allegedly drove into them during an illegal street race. Said Mojapelo: 'In a criminal case you deal with people. There are always victims. And one can serve justice without making them feel that there is no sympathy.' Full report in The Times

Kruger received unexpected support from a member of the ANC coterie at the hearing, notes a Beeld report. ANC national executive committee member Ngoako Ramatlhod, said he was 'seriously considering' voting for Kruger to be elevated to the Bench. 'I think I accept that you truly had a Damascus moment; that you truly changed. There were negative elements in the Broederbond and you decided to move away from them,' he is quoted as saying. Full Beeld report