CJ sounds warning over capture of judiciary
Publish date: 25 November 2019
Issue Number: 851
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: South Africa
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng insists he has confidence in judges, but nevertheless urged South Africans to watch his colleagues on the Bench carefully to ensure the judiciary is not compromised. ‘Watch us closely, otherwise our constitutional democracy is gone ... who do we associate with the most? Who are we uncomfortably or indecently friendly to? And check judgments when those people are involved. Ask yourself, does it make sense?’ These are the words used by Mogoeng when delivering the 17th annual Nelson Mandela Lecture at the University of Johannesburg's Soweto campus under the theme: ‘Constitutionalism as an instrument for transformation’. ‘I am not saying there is something wrong with the judges. I have absolute confidence in us but complacency can set in,’ he is quoted as saying in a News24 report. ‘We wield extensive power as the South African judiciary. There is almost nothing we cannot do through the instrumentality of the Constitution.’ Mogoeng said judges owed it to the country to ensure that the judiciary was not compromised.
Mogoeng urged people to watch how magistrates and judges were appointed. ‘You have got to observe carefully. You have got to watch how people are being interviewed because there are times when you can tell certain people have been shielded from being asked critical questions. How can you have an independent judge or magistrate when (at a time when) questions are asked to them, people build a scrum around them?’ Mogoeng asked, according to the News24 report. He added: ‘When these things happen, you must know that people are attempting to capture the judiciary.’ The Chief Justice also said any competent magistrate or judge seeking to be appointed to a position, should demonstrate their capacity by fielding tough questions. ‘But if people are now caucusing about a certain candidate you must know there is an attempt to capture the judiciary,’ he said. ‘A captured judiciary will never use the Constitution as an instrument for transformation because any captured member of judiciary will simply be told or will know in advance (that) when so and so are involved, I better know my place.’
