Allegations that the judiciary is captured are very serious and should not be made lightly, chief justice elect Raymond Zondo said on Thursday. 

He was speaking at a media briefing just a week before his appointment becomes official. 

Zondo said if anybody had evidence that the judiciary or any judge is captured, they should come forward with it. 

He was answering a question after a claim by EFF leader Julius Malema during a Human Rights Day rally in Sharpeville on Monday. Malema made bold claims that some of the country's judges were captured in favour of President Cyril Ramaphosa and a faction of the ANC. 

“In the past, allegations have been made that there were certain judges who received money to decide cases in a certain way.

“The former chief justice (Mogoeng Mogoeng) spoke publicly and said anyone who has evidence supporting these allegations must come forward. Up to now, I am not aware of anybody who has come forward with evidence on that,” Zondo said.

He said the judicial conduct committee was the body to which any member of the public could present allegations or proof of corruption among judges.

“The judicial conduct committee is a committee of judges which looks at complaints against judges without fear, favour or prejudice,” Zondo said.

Zondo said there had been allegations that a number of Pretoria high court judges were “in favour of” the current president.

“I have yet to see any one of them [accuser] who has taken the trouble to look at various judgments, analyse them and show how it can be said that the decisions that have been arrived at are decisions that cannot be supported by evidence, but simply that they are a manifestation of a biased mind on the part of the judges concerned to find in favour of the president, even when there is no evidence supporting that.”

Zondo said when Ramaphosa told him that he would be the next chief justice, he felt what he could describe as “the heaviness of the responsibility” that comes with such an appointment.

He said one of his goals in his short term as chief justice is to push for greater institutional independence of the judiciary. He said this was critical to sustaining SA's constitutional democracy.

TimesLIVE