LAW MATTERS: Judge Nkola Motata’s challenge a threat to accountability of judges
The judge’s ill-timed challenge threatens to stall processes at the JSC and Judicial Conduct Committee, writes Franny Rabkin
RIGHT now, we South Africans seem to be loving our judges. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng was like a rock star on the day of the Nkandla judgment. We celebrated when the Constitutional Court found against bullying corporate avarice in the Please Call Me case. But it was not always so. Remember the days of "counter-revolutionary" judges and the days when our leaders were trying to rewrite history by suggesting the separation of powers was a compromise made at Codesa and was essentially anti-democratic? The popularity pendulum can swing back and forth, and judges must weather the storm. What really matters is not popularity, it is confidence. Just think what would happen should our finance minister actually be charged and go to trial. If this materialises, nothing is going to be more important than for South Africans to have confidence in the judiciary; to know, with no shadow of doubt, that our judges are beyond reproach. Judges are not elected. They are appointed for life. Yet in our...
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