| Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe has said in court papers that there was no way the JSC could have found him guilty of gross misconduct on the evidence before it. Business Day reports Hlophe was responding to Freedom Under Law’s court case, which challenged the JSC’s decision last year not to hold a formal inquiry into a dispute between Hlophe and the Constitutional Court judges. In his papers, Hlophe said Freedom Under Law’s main argument was fundamentally flawed. Freedom Under Law had argued that its concern was not with Hlophe, but with the JSC, which had failed to discharge its constitutional mandate. The organisation said only cross-examination could resolve the factual dispute of what actually happened when Hlophe visited the two justices. But Hlophe said the disputes of fact were ‘immaterial’ and that the justices could not dispute his contention that he never intended to influence them. ‘It could never seriously have been suggested that the facts before the JSC, taken in their totality, disclosed misconduct on my part, let alone gross misconduct.’ Cross-examination would thus serve no purpose, he said. Full Story on Business Day website |
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