JOHANNESBURG - Former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma have approached the Constitutional Court in a renewed bid to remove Justice Sisi Khampepe as head of the TRC Cases Inquiry.
The duo is seeking direct access and leave to appeal a South Gauteng High Court ruling that dismissed their application to oust her. The High Court previously ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Mbeki and Zuma are now trying to overturn that decision. The lower court had found that they required Chief Justice Mandisa Maya’s prior consent before civil proceedings could be instituted against a sitting judge.
Advocate Dali Mpofu, representing Jacob Zuma, argued that the case hinges on statutory interpretation.
"The main issues that we raise on interpretation come from the text of the section itself," Mpofu argued.
"One is the interpretation of the word 'judge' in that matter, or the phrase 'judge of a superior court'. Then there is the interpretation of 'civil proceedings'—do the civil proceedings referred to in that matter fit these particular proceedings?"
Mpofu noted that this linked directly to why the previous judge, Modiba J, had found in their favour on the point.
"What she essentially said was that these were recusal proceedings, or akin to normal recusal proceedings," Mpofu said.
"In those types of proceedings, the judge is not required to be cited in the first place. Secondly, that judge could not escape or be insulated from scrutiny against bias."