Parliament voted on Wednesday to dismiss Justices John Hlophe and Nkola Motata.
Sunday Times/Elizabeth Sejake
The judge has been aspiring to become chief justice more than 15 years after John Hlophe persuaded two Constitutional Court judges to rule in favor of “persecuted” ANC president Jacob Zuma. The president became one of the first judges to be removed from office in SA's history. .
Mr Hlophe and his drink-driving conviction, Judge Nkola Motata, voted in favor of the Justice and Constitutional Development Portfolio Committee's report in which two-thirds of MPs supported a finding of abhorrent and gross misconduct against them. He was removed from the courtroom on Wednesday after he was released.
While the former Western Cape chief judge turned to the court he led for 20 years as a last resort to prevent Parliament from voting on his removal from office, Gauteng judge Soulet Poteril waited until the last moment. Congress agreed that it was. He brought the case and hit it from the roll.
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