South Africa’s Constitutional Court is facing a busy week ahead, with arguments due to be heard on Monday for the recusal of Justice Sisi Khampepe from the TRC Inquiry and judgment on Tuesday in the rand fixing scandal saga.
It is a busy week ahead for the Constitutional Court, which will on Monday hear arguments in former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma’s legal bid to have former Justice Sisi Khampepe recuse herself from the TRC inquiry, while it will deliver judgment on Tuesday in the rand-fixing saga.
The former presidents filed an application for leave to appeal against the earlier high court judgment in which they lost their legal bid to have her removed. The high court said it did not have the jurisdiction to decide over the application for the recusal of Justice Khampepe from the TRC inquiry.
In a majority judgment consented to by two judges, the court upheld a preliminary argument by the Khampepe Commission that as Justice Khampepe is a judge, although retired, Zuma and Mbeki should have obtained prior permission to bring her before the court.
But both said this was an error in law. They hold that the majority judgment erred by not dealing with the merits of the matter. According to them, a court which decides a case on a preliminary point - as in this case - ought to also simultaneously deal with the merits so as to avoid the spectre of piecemeal litigation and appeals.
