Suspended judge Tshifhiwa Maumela’s hearing postponed due to his hospitalisation

The Judicial Conduct Tribunal hearing for suspended judge Tshifhiwa Maumela has been postponed to 27 May due to his hospitalisation.

Maumela was expected to appear before the tribunal on Tuesday morning. The proceedings were delayed, and later postponed due to the judge’s ill health.

Advocate Ghandi Badela, for Maumela, said: “As we had informed you in a meeting that this morning, we learnt that Judge Maumela was hospitalised. On that occasion, we then approached the tribunal to seek this matter to be postponed to a date when he would be able to attend the proceedings. Accordingly, we would like to move an application to have these proceedings postponed to a date that we have agreed to, being 27 May 2024.”

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Maumela has been hauled to the tribunal following a complaint by Judge President Dunstan Mlambo of alleged gross misconduct and gross incompetence.

He is accused of failing to hand down reserved judgments within three to six months in 52 matters since 2013.

Testifying on Monday, Judge President Dunstan Mlambo said he reluctantly filed the complaint against his colleague as his conduct led to “a general distrust of the justice system”.

Mlambo told the tribunal that he had tried, on numerous occasions, to draw an explanation from Maumela concerning his alleged delayed judgments, to no avail.

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“I do not want to sit here as a complainant, but it’s my belief that judges must do the work that they took an oath and signed up to do,” Mlambo said.

Maumela was suspended in June last year by President Cyril Ramaphosa after a recommendation of the Judicial Conduct Committee that there were reasonable grounds to suspect he was guilty of misconduct in delaying the handing down of a significant number of judgments.

“At its meeting of 20 April 2023, the Judicial Service Commission took a decision to advise the president to suspend Justice Maumela and Justice Mngqibisa-Thusi pending a tribunal process envisaged in Section 19(1) of the Judicial Service Commission Act, 1994 (Act No.9 of 1994),” said the Presidency at the time.

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