The judicial conduct appeals committee on Tuesday ordered that a tribunal be established to investigate allegations made by Western Cape judge president John Hlophe against his deputy Patricia Goliath, including racism.

The tribunal will also investigate allegations by Goliath against Hlophe of assault, abusive language and abuse of power in relation to the office of the deputy judge president.

Hlophe appealed against two decisions made by then chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng in 2020.

Mogoeng dealt with  complaints by Goliath against Hlophe and counter-complaints by Hlophe against Goliath. 

Mogoeng recommended that complaints by Goliath be investigated by the tribunal. One of the complaints was that Hlophe allegedly assaulted a judge in his division,

Mogoeng also dismissed Hlophe’s counter-complaints against Goliath and said none had merit.

Hlophe made four allegations, one of which was Goliath's alleged racist disposition. Goliath allegedly said Hlophe is an “old black man”, urged his wife to drop his surname and other African people were “kaxxxxxies”.

Dismissing the counter-complaint, Mogoeng said it was a serious allegation that should ordinarily be pursued to the highest level. 

However, Mogoeng said Hlophe did not hear Goliath say this and he did not mention the racist part when they had a meeting in his chambers on October 2 2019.

Mogoeng said the allegation of racism was potentially Hlophe's most serious and damaging complaint against Goliath and information to support it was lacking.

On Tuesday, the appeals committee dismissed Hlophe’s appeal against Mogoeng’s decision that a tribunal be established to investigate and report on complaints by Goliath.

However, the committee said it differed with Mogoeng on some aspects of his ruling.

One related to utterances allegedly made by Goliath to Hlophe’s wife, judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe.

“I do not think that the issue can be resolved on paper. Particularly at this stage of the proceedings,” judge Nambitha Dambuza said in her ruling.

“If the allegations of racism against [Goliath] were established, including the allegation that the deputy judge president referred to some judges as ‘kaxxxxxies’ or that the judge president and judge Salie-Hlophe lied in imputing the allegations to [Goliath], gross misconduct could be proved either way.”

Nambitha said Goliath was aggrieved by the allegations of racism, which she denied.

“For that reason, I would refer these allegations as part of the investigation by the tribunal. To this extent I uphold the judge president's appeal against the dismissal of his counter-claim that was based on these allegations.”

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