Former Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe (left). (Photo: Gallo Images / Jeffrey Abrahams) | Judge Mushtak Parker. (Photo: Judges Matter) | Silence of the Lambs death’s head moth. (Source: screenrant.com) 
Last week, a Judicial Conduct Tribunal found that Western Cape High Court judge Mushtak Parker had lied about an alleged assault by the then head of the division, Judge President John Hlophe (since impeached).
The tribunal, chaired by retired Gauteng Judge President Bernard Ngoepe, ruled that “individually and cumulatively”, Parker had brought the judiciary into disrepute and stood to be impeached.
Ngoepe set out the complexity of the complaint — lodged by 10 fellow Western Cape High Court judges — stating that Parker had given “diametrically opposed versions” of the alleged assault, including in an affidavit to a colleague, Judge Derek Wille.
“If indeed there was no assault, there is evidence from multiple sources that he misled a number of judges into believing that there was an assault. If, on the other hand, there was an assault, it was grossly dishonourable for Judge Parker to now support Dr Hlophe in denying it. One of them had to be a lie.
“This leads to the inevitable conclusion that he [Parker] failed to uphold the integrity of the judiciary and that he failed to act honourably in the discharge of his duties,” said Ngoepe.
Splitting hairs
There is an operative word throughout reporting on this decision by the tribunal on Parker, and this remains that the assault is still “alleged”. The truth has been obliterated by mirrors and smoke.
Hlophe is currently deputy president of the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party, headed by former president Jacob Zuma, a man Hlophe denied shielding for almost two decades.
Hlophe was removed from the Bench for his interference with Constitutional Court judges who were deliberating on a matter involving Zuma in 2008.
Out in the wilderness and stripped of his considerable pension benefits, he fell into the warm embrace of Zuma’s second personal political project, MK, and was catapulted overnight to the leadership of SA’s largest opposition party. (Zuma’s first personal political project was State Capture, in case you were wondering.)
In this instance, Hlophe is beyond the reach of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) regarding the allegation that he assaulted a sickly, older colleague.
Read more: The rise and (slow) fall of John Hlophe, the judge who almost took the judiciary down with him
Hlophe is not going to be held to account. Not in this lifetime.
Even though more than 12 judges testified to the tribunal that they were aware of the 2019 “assault” only because Parker had informed them of it. Parker later retracted this version.
He said he had “misunderstood” what had happened in his chambers when he sustained an injury to his back, which initially he had claimed came from him being violently shoved against a cupboard.
It is crucial to note that Parker was found guilty of lying — either lying that the assault happened, or lying that the assault never happened.
Worst of all, he swore to affidavits on both versions — exposing himself to the crime of perjury.
Whether Hlophe will be held criminally or civilly liable for the alleged assault is unlikely. Parker, alongside the physical injuries he sustained and the psychological distress he had been placed under, chose to remain silent at the tribunal.
Omerta.
Should a complaint be lodged, all evidence will need to be tested again in court. Parker is not a well man.
Divide and rule
There is no doubt that Hlophe’s tenure as Judge President of the Western Cape created a toxic and violent atmosphere and split the division, almost through the centre, along racial lines.
“Part of his strategy was divide and rule where he sowed racial division among the judges,” an insider in the division told Daily Maverick.
Accountability and justice do not always arrive prepackaged. Hlophe has not yet used up his nine lives, and perhaps he never will. DM