Suspension of Bosasa-linked PTA Chief Magistrate welcomed

Civil society has welcomed news that Desmond Nair, the Chief Magistrate in Pretoria, has been suspended in the face of allegations made against him at the commission of inquiry into state capture.

Lawson Naidoo, of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC), and Paul Hoffman SC, of Accountability Now, both yesterday said it was good to see the commission’s work was having practical repercussions.

“I think that this must be welcomed, that people who are under a cloud of suspicion should be removed from office until they have had an opportunity to clear their names,” Naidoo said, “And this should be a practice that is more commonly applied in South Africa so that we can really move on from the legacy of state capture and corruption”.

Hoffman said it was good news that “what occurs in the commission of inquiry is not treated as something which must forever be relegated to further consideration, at a later stage”.

“When the need arises to take immediate action, then it is inappropriate that immediate action be taken,” he said.

Nair came under the spotlight last year, when Bosasa employee Richard Le Roux testified before the commission and implicated the chief magistrate in a dodgy deal involving the installation of a R200 000 security system at Nair’s Pretoria home.

Yesterday, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development issued a media release confirming that Minister Ronald Lamola had tabled Nair’s suspension in a report in Parliament.

It quoted the minister as saying, “Given the seriousness of the allegations, as well as the importance of the image of our judicial officers, our courts and the rule of law, I have decided to provisionally suspend Mr Nair with immediate effect”.

Nair yesterday afternoon confirmed that he had been informed of his suspension. He said he was consulting with his legal representatives and that he would pass on queries to them.

Nair has presided over a number of high profile cases during his career and in 2009, he found Pretoria HIgh Court Judge Nkola Motata guilty of driving under the influence and fined her R20 000.

The department said yesterday that Nair’s suspension was “pending the outcome of an investigation into his fitness to hold office as a magistrate”.

It said: “Having conducted a preliminary investigation and having considered the preliminary investigation report, the [Magistrates] Commission resolved to charge Mr. Nair with misconduct and a charge sheet, containing two counts of misconduct, was served in November last year”.

“Judicial officers must be held to the highest standards of scrutiny and their conduct must at all times be beyond reproach and be conduct befitting their office,” the minister added.

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