The Judicial Conduct Tribunal hearing into the conduct of suspended Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, Judge Nomonde Mngqibisa-Thusi was on Friday postponed to January to give her team a chance to obtain reports from two medical experts to be used in her defence.
Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi is facing the tribunal after not delivering judgments on time.
In her earlier representations before the Judicial Service Commission she said she was battling with health and personal issues.
Her legal team, Judge Gcina Malindi and former national director of public prosecutions Shaun Abrahams, said they needed a postponement as they still had to obtain reports from two medical practitioners whose evidence they wanted to present to the tribunal.
The reports would then to be shared with evidence leader Adrian Mopp, who said he too needed a postponement as he had to first consult with Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo before he gave evidence.
The hearing follows a complaint lodged earlier by Judge President Mlambo who was the first witness who was due to take the stand on Friday.
Asked by Justice Chris Jafta, the tribunal president, why he first had to consult with Judge Mlambo over the medical reports before the latter took the stand, Mopp explained that as head of the Gauteng division, Judge Mlambo engaged with Judge Mngqibisa -Thusi. “His lived experience could be different to what is presented in the reports,” Mopp said.
Mopp added that he was mindful that it had been three years since Judge Mlambo had laid the complaint regarding Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi, but he said a postponement would not prejudice the tribunal.
He added that he did not want to later have to call Judge Mlambo back to the stand.
Justice Jafta questioned how certain the parties were that they would be able to proceed after the postponement. He said the tribunal was told on November 8 that the parties would be ready this Friday to call Judge Mlambo to testify.
Retired Judge Dennis Davis, who is also part of the panel, commented that this was a “relatively confined case” and that there was no need to call 400 witnesses.
He said the JSC had been criticised over the years for tardiness in dealing with these sorts of matters. He said the longer the postponement was, the more the inference was that these things never got sorted.
The matter was postponed to January 29 and is set down for the week.
Pretoria News