Jeff Radebe in court for racial discrimination case

Energy minister Jeff Radebe appeared before the Equality Court on Thursday for racial discrimination case brought by workers union Solidarity.

This comes after Radebe, during his time as justice minister, refused to promote magistrate Martin Kroukamp to the post of the senior magistrate at the Alberton Magistrate’s court.

The union had said the minister ‘blatantly ignored” the Magistrate’s Commission’s recommendation to promote magistrate Martin Kroukamp to a position as senior magistrate at Alberton’s Magistrate’s Court in 2014, “believing that appointing Kroukamp would not promote transformation”.

Solidarity said the case was a typical example of the government’s “thoughtless” pursuit of transformation targets at the expense of merits.

It said Radebe’s actions deprived the public of “a competent and skilled magistrate because of his skin colour”.

The proceedings continue.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.