Judicial Service Commission (JSC) interviews for the Western Cape High Court have laid bare the “notoriously troubled” state of the division, with candidates facing pointed questions about how they would address the “serious fractures” in that court.
During the tenure of former judge president John Hlophe — impeached as a judge for gross misconduct in May — the division was known to be divided. In her interview to replace him as leader of the court, his deputy, Patricia Goliath, told the JSC that when she became acting judge president, “the division was in a dire state”.
There had been no judges’ meetings for six years, the judges’ tea room was “non-existent”, the morale of the judges was low, and the director of public prosecutions was not allowed into the court “for some reason”.
These were things she immediately sought to address when she took over, she said. She insisted that the court was now “not in disarray”.
“I can categorically state that if there is a judge who says the division is troubled as I sit here today, that is not ... correct,” she said. Things were working and the court’s challenges were similar to those of other courts — challenges such as the need to move to digitisation and the need for more judges.
As deputy judge president, Goliath would naturally be seen as a front-runner to succeed Hlophe. But she faced a barrage of questions and was roundly grilled for just under three hours. Another senior judge in her division, Rosheni Allie, had written to the JSC raising a number of concerns about Goliath’s leadership style and measures she had implemented as acting judge president.
The memorandum was not publicly released, but based on the questions, Allie’s concerns included that there were no minutes taken at judges’ meetings and that cases were allocated to judges arbitrarily. Allie also alleged that Goliath communicated with other judges through her secretary and that once, when Goliath’s secretary delivered a file to her, and she said she was unable to take on the case, Goliath’s secretary asked why she could not do it virtually.
Commissioner Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC said this was more than formal communications, but was “substantive judicial work that was being conveyed through the secretary”.
Goliath’s answers only led to more questions. When she said her secretary had told her that she did not tell Allie how to hear a matter, Kameshni Pillay SC asked whether she was telling the JSC that Allie’s claim was “an untruth”.
Pillay said: “What you’re saying to the commission is that judge Allie in her comment to the commission included a fabrication or an untruth ... it ties into something you said much earlier in your exchange with the CJ. You urged us to, in your words, treat judge Allie’s comments with caution. Now that’s a very serious thing to ask the JSC to do — in particular when you are talking about a sitting judge.”
Goliath said she and Allie were both candidates for the position of deputy judge president in 2016. Since her appointment, Allie “did not communicate with me at all”. Her request for caution was because Allie had brought her issue to the JSC and not to her. “It was something she could have raised easily with me,” said Goliath.
Goliath was then questioned about her defensive stance and what this said about her ability to lead, with commissioner Sesi Baloyi SC saying she was “quite disappointed in your tone and the manner of your response”. Then it emerged that her secretary had also written a response to Allie’s letter, which Baloyi said showed “absolute disrespect” and asked Goliath how she could allow such a letter. “Your registrar should never speak like that to any judge,” said Baloyi.
Goliath’s acting deputy, Andre La Grange, was the second candidate to be interviewed and was asked about the state of the division. He said colleagues were working together, dealing with matters and sitting on the bench together. There may be colleagues “with differing views, but they are working together”.
TimesLIVE
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