Rohde appeal puts Judge Salie-Hlophe on trial

The scandal playing out publicly in the Western Cape judiciary, arising from complaints and counter-complaints between Judge President John Hlophe and his wife, High Court Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe, on the one hand, and the Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath on the other, may have a profound impact on one of SA's most high-profile murder convictions. Salie-Hlophe was the judge who delivered a scathing verdict against Jason Rohde for the murder of his wife Susan in July 2016, and sentenced him to an effective 20 years in jail. That case centred on whether Susan Rohde was murdered by her husband and her death staged as a suicide, or whether she, as contended by Jason Rohde, had been so devastated by his affair with an estate agent that she hanged herself in the bathroom of their room at the Spier hotel in Stellenbosch. Now the Rohde trial, and the way in which Salie-Hlophe presided over it, is at the centre of a potentially explosive legal challenge in the SCA, observes legal writer Karyn Maughn in a BusinessLIVE analysis. She says the case is also at the heart of one of multiple complaints Goliath has levelled against Hlophe and his wife. 'Late last year, Rohde scored a significant legal victory by persuading the appeal court to release him on bail, pending his far-reaching challenge to both his conviction and sentence. Salie-Hlophe had refused Rohde's application for leave to appeal, but the appeal court granted it, a decision that implied his bid had "reasonable prospects of success".' Maughn writes that Goliath's submissions to the JSC now contain claims that there was 'considerable unhappiness in the division' about the allocation of the Rohde trial to Salie-Hlophe, 'as she was one of the most junior judges' on the Bench. Though Goliath had suggested that the case should be heard by Judge Andre le Grange, she says Hlophe allocated it to his wife, who now faces damaging accusations from Rohde that she violated his right to a fair trial by displaying bias against him and the witnesses who testified in his defence. Rohde's lawyers contend that Salie-Hlophe thought he was guilty from the start and made no attempt to properly consider the merits of his case. Maughn says it's worth noting that there will undoubtedly be personal and political consequences for the multiple sensational complaints and counter-complaints made by Goliath against Hlophe and his wife. 'They are cringe-worthy in their level of personal detail, but also deeply concerning in their suggestions of agendas and partiality in the crucial decisions that govern the running of the Western Cape High Court.'