Apartheid-era magistrate has the JSC in stitches
Bantubonke Tokota was questioned on Marikana, muti and his role in the turbulent 1980s
"THE law is the law," senior counsel Bantubonke Tokota said to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) on Friday, justifying his having been an apartheid-era magistrate.Tokota turned around what was set to be a tense line of questioning from commissioner Julius Malema — about the Marikana Commission of Inquiry’s report, which Tokota co-authored and his role as a magistrate in the turbulent 1980s — and had the commission in stitches, including Malema.Tokota was one of three candidates to be interviewed for two spots on the Eastern Cape High Court. The other two were advocates Lilla Crouse and attorney Thembekile Malusi.First asked about whether he believed in muti and whether muti could cause people to act in a certain way, Tokota said he did not. But he said, like church, if people did believe in it, "it worked for them".That line of questioning was brought to a halt when he said that the Marikana report never found that anyone had been moved by muti to do anything.He was then asked b...
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