A leaked internal complaint has revealed tension between top justices at the Constitutional Court.
Independent Media has evidence pointing to a battle for control of the judiciary following Mogoeng Mogoeng’s departure as chief justice of South Africa.
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo was officially appointed to the position of chief justice by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
On July 24, 2022, former judiciary spokesperson Nathi Mncube wrote to the head of the Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ), Meme Sejosengwe, and alleged that she had said that then Acting Chief Justice Zondo was not happy with the inclusion of Justice Madlanga in some judicial meetings.
The complaint read: “On December 8, 2021, Mr Mncube was advised by advocate Marelise Potgieter that the secretary-general wanted a teams meeting to discuss the 2020/21 judiciary report that was due for release on December 10, 2021. The meeting took place that afternoon as scheduled.
“In the meeting, Ms Sejosengwe indicated that acting Chief Justice Zondo, as he then was, had expressed his disquiet about the inclusion of Justice Madlanga in the draft programme for the Judiciary Day event.
“There were other items discussed during the meeting about the actual report. However, Ms Sejosengwe took issue with the fact that Mr Mncube and Ms van Niekerk included Justice Madlanga in the programme.
“She mentioned that Acting Chief Justice Zondo and JP Leeuw, as chairperson of the Heads of Court Judicial Accountability Committee, expressed their disquiet about Justice Madlanga’s involvement in the programme.
“Mr Mncube and Ms van Niekerk responded by saying that the programme was a draft for approval by JP Leeuw and that Justice Madlanga’s name was suggested to JP Leeuw on the basis that he was the most senior judge at the Constitutional Court after ACJ Zondo at the time.”
The letter emphasised that since the previous programmes had always involved a deputy chief justice and in the absence of an acting DCJ, it was deemed prudent to include Justice Madlanga to perform the functions that would have been performed by an acting DCJ.
“She then blamed us for not managing the ‘judiciary politics’, well knowing that there were tensions within the judiciary because of the pending chief justice’s interviews.”
A letter of complaint later mentioned that advocate Potgieter informed Mncube and Van Niekerk that they had picked up a lot of errors in the report they had shared with Justice Zondo, who was vying for the chief justice position.
“They told us that the errors were deliberately meant to publicly embarrass Acting Chief Justice Zondo with the view to jeopardise his chances of becoming the chief justice.”
Contacted for comment, the Public Service Commission said it had referred the matter to the Justice Ministry in 2022.
The Justice Department did not respond to questions.
Cape Times