Chief justice alarmed by Mbete’s claims of ‘some judges’ being anti-ANC

Chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s office has taken exception to accusations by National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete that “some judges” are biased in court cases involving the ANC, saying the accusations were deeply concerning and could hurt the country’s constitutional democracy.

This comes after Mbete, also the national chairperson of the ANC, made the claims to the Sunday Times in an interview on her presidential ambitions, published at the weekend, that some judges were biased against the party.

“When there is a case that affects someone from the ANC, those cases would find their way [into the courts], and if they end up in the hands of certain specific judges, forget it, you are going to lose that case. It has nothing to do with merit, correctness or wrongness. Some names pop up in the head already,” Mbete told the weekly without mentioning the judges or the cases concerned.

Mogoeng’s spokesperson, Nathi Mncube, said the head of the Constitutional Court had always reminded himself and heads of courts to act in line with the dictates of their affirmation and oath of office to deliver justice to all, The Times reported.

“The chief justice is deeply concerned about apparently baseless perceptions or overly generalised complaints against the judiciary and individual judges in particular. When a single judge has given a single judgment with which some leaders disagree, the predictable and often unsubstantiated reaction tends to be that the judiciary is overreaching or biased,” said Mncube.

He said the accusations of judges being anti-ANC were “very serious” and the speaker should have either lodged an appeal in every case where she suspected bias or an injustice, or complained to the Judicial Service Commission against those judges.

“The chief justice is not supposed to be the one to do it. There are constitutional and statutory mechanisms open to any aggrieved litigant. But the chief justice wants to assure all South Africans and all litigants that the judiciary will continue to administer justice to all alike without any fear, favour or prejudice and only according to the constitution and the law,” Mncube added.

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