Judge defends sentencing of child sex offender

According to a report on the IoL site, Acting Judge Dumisani Zondi was one of two proteges of beleaguered Cape Judge President John Hlophe who were being interviewed for the two vacancies in the division. ‘I don\'t think you understand the sensitivity of most of the members of this commission,’ JSC member and veteran Advocate George Bizos told him at the end of his interview. Earlier, Trade and Industry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks, a lawyer by training and a member of the JSC, challenged Zondi over the sentence he imposed in July on 71-year-old Cape Town man Yusuf Harrison, convicted of raping and sodomising a girl of seven and sodomising two boys aged eight and nine. Zondi said if the same case was to come back to him now, given the circumstances presented to him at the time he did not think he would come to a different conclusion. ‘The conclusion I came to was a well-considered one,’ he said to the apparent irritation of some of those present. Full report on the IoL site

The Hlophe race row issue did not feature on the commission\'s open agenda. And Hlophe told the media he wasn’t saying anything because the matter was sub judice, although he didn’t explain why he thought it to be sub judice. A report in The Witness on the JSC sitting, says that as Chief Justice, Hlophe usually leads the discussion and questions when a vacancy for his division is offered, but yesterday he was silent. He told the commission he had asked two acting judges who appeared for the position of permanent judge, to act on the Cape Bench – Tandazwa Ndita and Dumisani Zondi. When DA MP Sheila Camerer asked Ndita – an alleged witness to the racism allegations against Hlophe – if she had encountered racism and sexism on the Bench during her term as acting judge, Ndita was only allowed to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’. She confirmed she had, but did not expand on her answer. Full report in The Witness

The race row continues to bubble, however. Cape Bar Council chairman Ashton Schippers took issue with a comment last week by one of Hlophe\'s colleagues, Judge Siraj Desai, that some members of the council appear to be among those behind a campaign against Hlophe. ‘As I have repeatedly informed the media, the Cape Bar Council is not behind any \'campaign\' and rejects this allegation for which there simply is no basis,’ Schippers said. Meanwhile, another judge has signed a petition of protest, bringing to 14 the number of judges on the Cape Bench who claim the allegations against the Hlophe are a smear campaign against him.