JSC asks Corrie van der Westhuizen why he did not object to being conscripted
And what the longest time was he had spent in a black township
A SENIOR counsel hoping to be appointed to the Gauteng High Courts on Thursday faced tough questions at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) interviews about having been conscripted into the army during the apartheid-era and his lack of political activism.Panyaza Lesufi, JSC commissioner representing Gauteng premier David Makhura, said the reason for the questions to Corrie van der Westhuizen SC was to ascertain whether he would be able, as a judge, to serve everybody, given what appeared to be a very privileged background.Van der Westhuizen was the last candidate to be interviewed for appointment to the Johannesburg and Pretoria High Courts on Thursday. He said he had not had a privileged background and had worked for everything he had.Van der Westhuizen said he had not objected to being conscripted, despite knowing that apartheid was an unjust system, because if he had, he would have been treated as a criminal and his "ability to assist" later would have been tarnished.He said he...
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