Suspended Gauteng High Court Judge Nana Makhubele. Picture: Facebook
Pretoria - Gauteng High Court Judge President Dunstan Mlambo said had he known at the time of Judge Nana Makhubele’s appointment as a judge that she was also to be appointed chair of the new interim Prasa board, he would have asked the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to take another look at her appointment.
But, he said, by the time he had realised that she served as the chairperson of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA board, the “horse had already bolted”.
According to Judge Mlambo, the now-suspended Judge Makhubele was secretive about her appointment to the board and only confirmed this to him in January 2018. By then she was supposed to have commenced with her appointment as judge to the high court in Pretoria.
Judge Mlambo gave this evidence during the second day of the Judicial Conduct Tribunal into a misconduct complaint against Judge Makhubele. The tribunal is investigating a complaint by civil society organisation #UniteBehind into allegations of gross misconduct. It claims Judge Makhubele violated the separation of powers principle by serving both as a judge and chairperson of a state-owned company.
Judge Makhubele was appointed as chairperson of Prasa’s interim board in 2017 shortly after she became a judge on November 1, 2017, following her successful interview with the JSC in October that year.
She resigned from the Prasa board on March 16, 2018, and took up her position as a judge in June 2018. The tribunal, led by retired KwaZulu-Natal Judge President Achmat Jappie, must establish whether Makhubele was a judge during the time that she headed the board.
Judge Makhubele has denied wrongdoing, saying she had already resigned as Prasa board chairperson when she was sworn in as a judge.
Judge Mlambo testified that shortly after their appointments, he had sent a directive to all the new judges in his division explaining that their term of office started on January 1, 2018, which included Judge Makhubele.
Judge Makhubele told him in December 2017 that she was not ready to assume her duties on that date because she had outstanding matters to sort out. She told Judge Mlambo she was the chairperson of the Water Tribunal at that stage and asked whether she could start in April 2018. He told her that there was no conflict of interest and that she had to be sworn in as judge in the first week of January.
He said it was only after he had called her to his office in mid-January, after she did not pitch up to be sworn-in, that he asked her about her appointment as Prasa chairperson.
He was disappointed, he said, that she had taken the Prasa position while she was appointed as a judge to a division that dealt with matters of state capture involving Prasa.
According to Judge Mlambo, Judge Makhubele remained mum about her Prasa involvement until that time. He said yesterday that if he knew about this earlier, he would have raised this with the JSC shortly after he appointment so that the commission could deliberate on the matter.
Judge Mlambo said at the time when Judge Makhubele asked him if she could only assume her duties on April 1, it was the first time a newly appointed judge had asked him for an extension of the date on which they are supposed to take up their position.
Advocate Vincent Maleka SC, acting for Judge Makhubele, told Judge Mlambo that there was no conflict of interest as his client only took up her judicial duties after she had resigned from the Prasa board. He also said she did not financially prejudice the judiciary, as she only received a judge’s salary when she took up office in June.
Judge Mlambo said there was financial prejudice after her suspension because both her salary, as well as that of an acting judge to take her place, had to be paid.
Pretoria News