[imagesource: Pauli van Wyk / Beeld]

With a horribly low conviction rate for violent crimes (and all crimes, if we’re being honest), South Africans can be excused for having a diminishing level of faith in South Africa’s judicial system.

The alleged conduct of some of our top judicial figures has also come under scrutiny in recent times, and a story from GroundUp is very, very worrying.

In that story, published last Friday, it is alleged that a report compiled by the Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services (JICS) has been handed to the Minister of Justice, Ronald Lamola, containing information that “a senior judge may have ordered the assassination of another judge”.

GroundUp chose not to publish the names of the judges, but did report the following regarding the allegation:

A judge, through a third party, contracted two men to assassinate his colleague. R3 million was promised for the hit.

While the hit nearly got carried out, it was ultimately called off. The would-be assassins nevertheless demanded payment

They were paid R200,000.

The Daily Maverick has picked up the baton, saying that the report names Western Cape Judge President, John Hlophe (pictured above), and Western Cape Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath.

When contacted, Goliath said she was constrained in what she could publicly comment on, but did offer this:

She did, however, confirm that on 3 June 2020 she had been contacted by members of the Grahamstown Bar, who were unknown to her at the time, and advised that a prisoner had called the office and had informed them that a “hit” had been placed on Goliath’s life by another judge.

Members of the bar relayed the call to a Judge at Grahamstown High Court, who suggested that they contact Goliath [pictured above] immediately. On the same day, she informed the Office of the Chief Justice of the alleged threat.

Added security measures were immediately put in place.

Goliath then passed on the information she received, and the JICS began their investigation.

It’s alleged that whilst awaiting trial in Pietermaritzburg, one prisoner overheard another receive a call recruiting him to carry out a hit on Goliath:

The report says the prisoner, when questioned during the JICS investigation, had responded that the potential hitman had told him that the caller had named a third party who had allegedly ordered the hit on behalf of Hlophe.

Let this sink in for a second…

Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe is being accused of orchestrating a hit on Western Cape Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath.

It would be completely staggering, if we weren’t already resigned to all sorts of shenanigans on the part of our law enforcement organisations and courts.

This is far from the first time Hlophe has had allegations of a serious nature levelled against him, either. The list is lengthy.

The JICS report is not definitive, but did find there was “no basis to discount” the allegation, which warrants further investigation.

For Hlophe’s reaction, here’s News24:

“Our client was shocked by the publications by the various media houses, as the averments are baseless and false,” a brief statement by Hlophe’s lawyer, Barnabas Xulu, said on Sunday.

“We will attend to consultation with our client during the week of 7 September 2020 and will thereafter respond comprehensively to the allegations as contained in the publications,” the statement concludes.

Essentially, a whole lot of nothing.

I guess now we wait and see.

[sources:groundup&dailymav&news24]