TimesLIVE reports that Pretoria high court judge Nana Makhubele has urgently gone to court to prevent her suspension on the basis that she was not yet a judge at the time she was alleged to have committed gross misconduct.
Last month the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to suspend Makhubele, pending an investigation into possible impeachment. This was because she had, after being appointed a judge, taken up the position of chairperson of the Passenger Rail Service of SA (Prasa) and has been accused, while there, of improper conduct. But Makhubele has asked the Pretoria high court to set aside the finding of the JSC that her appointment as a judge commenced on 1 January 2018. In her affidavit, filed in court on Monday, she said that — on a request to the president by judge president Dunstan Mlambo — her 1 January starting date had been revoked and changed to 1 June 2018. Makhubele pointed out that when she carried out her duties as Prasa chair she was neither a judge nor performing judicial functions. She had not taken her oath of office, she was not receiving a salary or any benefits of judicial office. She has asked that, until the court case is finalised, the decisions that she should be suspended and face a judicial conduct tribunal should themselves be suspended. She also wants the high court to declare that it is unlawful for the state to refuse to fund her legal costs in her proceedings before the JSC.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Franny Rabkin at TimesLIVE
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