Hlophe’s dogs are barking mad
The pattern is a growingly familiar one in South Africa: a powerful, populist, ethically challenged black person has some sort of run-in with the authorities. Then a vocal, mysteriously funded, fiercely loyal and rabidly combative band of acolytes forms like a crust around its flawed hero. The more corrupt, morally bankrupt and/or criminal the individual, the greater the rabid band’s devotion and the greater its portrayal of the subject as a victim of the “system”. Jacob Zuma’s band managed to unseat an elected president, compromise the judicial system and engineer his path to the presidency.
Another such individual is Judge John Hlophe. He meets all the criteria: he is powerful (judge president of the Western Cape), populist (the judiciary is riddled with unrepentant racists), ethically challenged (ruled on a case in which a plaintiff was his own dubiously sanctioned client) and is involved in a career-threatening run-in with the authorities (impeachment hearing for allegedly trying to influence Constitutional Court judges in favour of Zuma).
So of course John “Slippery” Hlophe has his own merry band of over-enthusiastic devotees, The Justice for (Judge President) Hlophe Alliance (JHA). Like their Zuma-adoring counterparts, they build up a straw man argument – in this case that Hlophe is being attacked for his “transformation” stance – and then viciously attack any detractor by spewing ad hominem racist vitriol. Not the reasoned argument for them – no, everything is about race, even it’s a black person who is the object of their venom. It appears there is a grand conspiracy between white, “anti-transformation” agents and their uncle Tom, self-hating black collaborators. Black people like Chief Justice Pius Langa, who unlike Hlophe, fought in the struggle against apartheid.
The JHA will not hesitate to stoop into the gutter to vilify its opposition. Nothing is sacred in the holy fight. Tony Leon’s quite reasonable article describing how Hlophe and his outriders are using a fifth-column strategy to vandalize the Constitution, drew the opprobrium of Hlophe’s dogs:
The Justice for Hlophe Alliance notes with extreme sadness that Tony Leon, a Jewish South Africa citizen, has blatantly imported and invoked language and tactics from Israeli politics in an effort to slander the Judge President. Just two years ago, an Israeli member of parliament, Effi Eitam’s declared that Israel should expel West Bank Palestinians and bar Israeli Arabs from political life, since the latter are “a fifth column, a league of traitors.”
….
The Justice for Hlophe Alliance warns Leon and others against starting or introducing into our society a racist discourse that could replicate the Arab-Israeli eternal strife.
WTF? This is a straight anti-Semitic smear. Mind you, it’s very creative. Take a well known English language phrase, find a quote from an Israeli politician using it, and then somehow use that to accuse Tony Leon of dragging (Jewish) Israeli politics into South Africa. So creative they must be barking mad.
Paul Ngobeni
Their latest raving draws suspicion to the haste with which Johnny’s case is being pursued by the Judicial Services Commission. This is a tactic lifted directly from the Zuma campaign. Delay, litigate, delay, feign sickness, delay, litigate, and so on and so on. And then say it’s all being done with undue haste.
Chief choir master of these crazies is one Paul Ngobeni, until recently a deputy registrar at the University of Cape Town, and wanted felon. He is the chief conspiracy theorist and reality denialist – at least when it comes to his beloved master, JH. It’s too tedious to try and find any substance in Ngobeni’s utterances – but in summary it’s all a racist conspiracy against a hero victim. One of his targets, public law professor Hugh Corder at the University of Cape Town has hit back, including this gem I had not heard before:
Significantly, Ngobeni writes nothing in defence of Hlophe’s conduct on the Bench in the two instances for which I criticised him: his unacceptably dilatory and legally controversial refusal to grant leave to appeal in the New Clicks case in late 2004, and his extraordinary, some may even say unconstitutional, use of the contempt power in November 2007 when he detained an advocate in court for three hours after the conclusion of formal proceedings, because the latter had arrived an hour late for a hearing.
So what is to be gained by supporting such an incredibly flawed character? It’s not hard to find the answer: just look at where Zuma’s mad dogs are now. They’ve been rewarded very well. They’re all sitting in very cushy posts in government and hold enormous sway over government policy. Zuma owes them big, and they all know it.
Similarly, I’m sure Hlophe’s supporters don’t think he’s just a tremendous chap worth supporting. No, they have a clear aim in mind, clearly stated, to get the Slippery One installed has Chief Justice. And then of course they will expect – and get – the legal goodies they believe they so richly deserve.
If that happens, and there’s good precedent to show that it could, then South Africa is in deep trouble. The Constitution is all that stands between us and Zimbabwe. And it’s only as good as those responsible for upholding it.
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