Two sources have alleged that Supreme Court of Appeal president Mandisa Maya personally repeated the allegation that her rival for the position of Chief Justice, Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo, was implicated in sexual harassment.<\/p>\n
The allegations against Mlambo, which have not risen above the level of rumour, burst into the open when Judicial Service Commission (JSC) commissioners Dali Mpofu and Julius Malema raised them during Mlambo\u2019s interview on 3 February.<\/p>\n
Maya declined to respond to 14 points put to her by amaBhungane, including a claim that she had \u201con more than one occasion\u2026\u00a0 conveyed allegations that Judge Mlambo was implicated in sexual harassment to influential colleagues\/acquaintances\u201d.<\/p>\n
Instead she wrote,\u00a0 \u201cI have no comment\u201d.<\/p>\n
She copied our questions to the JSC secretariat, SCA Deputy President Petse and Acting Chief Justice Zondo.<\/p>\n
During Mlambo\u2019s interview, Mpofu, while acknowledging he was not aware of any formal complaint against the judge, publicly raised what he described as a \u201cwhispering campaign\u201d linking Mlambo to sexual harassment, while Malema alleged there were claims that Mlambo attempted to extract sexual favours in return for appointing women as acting judges.<\/p>\n
Mlambo categorically denied all these claims.<\/p>\n
According to Mlambo\u2019s account, the first he heard about these rumours was through a concerned colleague: \u201cWhen this Chief Justice nomination process started, I got a call from a retired judge in the Western Cape who said \u2018hey, I heard a disturbing rumour about you\u2019. I asked if there was a name. There was not\u2026. I feel pained that this rumour found [its] way into my interview \u2026 [C]learly its purpose is to poison my candidature.\u201d<\/p>\n
JSC acting chairperson, Supreme Court of Appeal Deputy President Xola Petse, later ruled that the sexual harassment rumours should be expunged from the record given the fact that Mlambo was not forewarned that such a serious matter would be raised, coupled with the fact that there was no concrete information submitted to the commission.<\/p>\n
A senior advocate told amaBhungane he viewed the way Mlambo\u2019s interview proceeded as \u201cone of the most savage character assassinations in democratic South Africa\u2019s judicial history\u201d.<\/p>\n
The JSC controversially voted to recommend Maya as its preferred candidate to President Cyril Ramaphosa, despite some legal scholars arguing that this went beyond its constitutional mandate. Ramaphosa never asked the JSC to make a recommendation and legal experts including, Professor Thuli Madonsela, former Public Protector, and Lawson Naidoo, executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac), have been quoted as saying that the JSC overstepped its constitutional reach in making a recommendation.<\/p>\n
The JSC\u2019s recommendation also came in the wake of renewed criticism about the manner in which the interviews were conducted, including the fact that different candidates appeared to be treated unequally by the commission.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa has yet to announce his decision.<\/p>\n
New claims<\/strong><\/p>\n Now claims have emerged that Maya personally mentioned, on separate occasions, similar rumours to two influential persons ahead of the JSC interviews for the position of Chief Justice where she, and Judges Mlambo, Mbuyiseli Madlanga and Raymond Zondo were being interviewed.<\/p>\n Amabhungane has been told of two instances, in one case last year prior to the call for nominations and in another about a month ago.<\/p>\n