Eight fellow judges testified that Western Cape judge Mushtak Parker told them he was assaulted by the province’s former judge president, John Hlophe.
Parker told them he “felt humiliated and degraded” after the assault.
The judges, Parker’s colleagues in the division, testified at a judicial conduct tribunal investigating claims the judge lied under oath.
Parker is claimed to have lied under oath when writing an affidavit on the alleged physical attack by Hlophe at his chambers on February 25 2019. He later said he might not have remembered the incident well.
The tribunal is also investigating whether Parker was involved in alleged misappropriation of clients’ trust fund money by his firm, Parker and Khan Inc.
Should he be found guilty he faces a charge of gross misconduct, which could lead to his impeachment.
Testifying at the tribunal on Monday, several judges of the province’s high court testified Parker told them, separately, that he was pushed by Hlophe against a cupboard, hit a key which injured him on his back and fell to the floor.
Judge Mark Sher, who said he had known Parker for about 40 years, said Parker confided in him that the alleged incident left him “humiliated and needing counselling”.
Sher said Parker told him Hlophe confronted him, accusing him of “wanting to have sexual relations” with his wife at the time, judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe.
“He indicated the incident was occasioned by an allegation that he had been inappropriate towards the judge president’s wife.
“He said he had tapped on the judge president’s wife’s gown in the tea room and that she had interpreted that as an inappropriate gesture and as a form of assault to the judge president,” Sher said.
“When he was trying to explain to the judge president that none of the allegations were true, the judge president advanced upon him in a threatening manner and pushed him backwards and hit the key and fell to the floor. The judge president left the room.”
Other judges who testified at the tribunal on Monday included Judge Katharine Savage, Esther Steyn, Judith Cloete, Andre Le Grange, Robert Henney and judge Derek Wille, who had written the initial affidavit by Parker and took pictures of the broken key.
They all concurred with Sher that Parker had told them of the assault.
Sher said Parker later told him of a meeting he had with Hlophe and suggested in that meeting he was “pressured” not to file an official complaint against the judge president.
Parker did not at any point retract that Hlophe had attacked him, he said.
“It was clear to me by the way he recounted the events that he felt humiliated and degraded and suffered a physical injury to his back. He said he had to undergo psychological counselling to assist him to deal with the matter.”
Parker’s lawyer William King did not ask the witnesses questions.
Representing the judges, advocate Geoff Budlender said he had prepared more witnesses to give evidence but opted not to as King did not object to evidence given by eight judges before the tribunal.
“In light of several witnesses giving evidence as to what judge Parker said to them and the lack of any challenge to that evidence, we do not intend to call further witnesses on behalf of complainants.”
In the second complaint, Parker, his brother Irfan and Abdurahman Khan, are accused of managing a law firm which allegedly misappropriated clients’ trust fund money and operated on an R8m deficit by 2017.
Irfan was called as a witness to the tribunal and initially did not want his face shown in the live broadcast. He later said he had no problem showing his face as his brother, though attorney King contested his request.
King described Irfan as a “surprise” witness, saying they did not know he would testify before the tribunal.
Irfan’s testimony was, however, not long as he only confirmed his affidavit and declined to answer further questions on when the managers knew the firm was operating at a deficit.
Witness advocate Andrew Breitenbach, former Cape Bar Council chairperson, gave his testimony on the complaint the council initiated against Parker that he failed to disclose the poor financial state of his law firm during the interview to become a judge.
He based his evidence on an application initiated by the SA Legal Practice Council to have Parker’s former business partners struck off the roll.
In his affidavit, he said: “The papers in the LPC proceedings reveal the extent of the shortfall in the firm’s trust account. In November 2017 (the effective date of the respondent’s appointment as acting judge) the shortfall was R7,046,303.
“There is also evidence to suggest that by September 2017, at least, the respondent [Parker] knew that the money had been misappropriated and that Khan was responsible for the misappropriation.
“Finally, there is evidence that in early May 2017, the respondent himself arranged that trust monies (belonging to his mother) be used for his own personal purposes, and it appears that was done without her knowledge and consent.”
The matter has been postponed to April 29 for arguments.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.