News24 – SAPA
Cape Town – The report and recommendations on racism and sexism adopted by the Heads of court last week and released on Friday contains no silver bullet to eliminate racism and sexism in the judiciary, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Sunday. “While the Chief Justice will remain involved in the Western Cape to try and restore stability, the report makes clear that to combat racism and sexism within their ranks the judges are in for the long haul,” said justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer. The DA said the report was a workman-like document representing a substantial effort by the sub committee of judges who worked on it. “They had to wage through a mountain of submissions which have been called for by the Chief Justice.” “Perhaps significantly, Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe’s report on racism which started the ball rolling and which contained allegations of racism against several members of the Cape Bar and Bench gets short shrift.” The committee’s report came after Hlophe complained of racism in the judiciary in March. Last week a ceasefire was declared in the Hlophe race war when Langa said that none of the protagonists wanted any further action to be taken. The row was sparked by a claim that Hlophe had called attorney Joshua Greeff a “piece of white shit” after Greeff criticised the way one of Hlophe’s appointees, acting justice Tandazwa Ndita, presided over a murder case he was involved in. The DA added that here appeared to be little sympathy for Hlophe himself. “The report comments merely that it is necessary to point out that the allegations by Hlophe against individual judges and some members of the legal profession have in general been refuted by the persons concerned. “Save for this comment, the report does not deal with specific allegations.”