JOHANNESBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th March, 2021) The human rights group Africa 4 Palestine, which was one of the three organizations to lodge a complaint against South Africa's Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng for his pro-Israel comments, told Sputnik that it welcomed a recent judgment ordering him to unconditionally apologize and retract last year's statements, which allegedly contravened the country's Code of Judicial Conduct.
The political controversy dates back to June 23, when Mogoeng came under fire following his participation in an online webinar hosted by The Jerusalem Post newspaper. In his address, the South African chief justice said he was under an obligation as a devout Christian to love the Jewish state and to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. In July of that year, several NGOs complained to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) about Mogoeng violating the Code of Judicial Conduct by using the office's prestige to advance his own interests and failing to respect the separation of powers. Other complaints included involving Mogoeng himself in extra-judicial activities that affected his availability to perform professional duties. Earlier this week, the Judicial Conduct Committee found the official guilty and gave him 10 days to make an official apology.
"The decision is groundbreaking and precedent-setting. This is good for the people of Palestine, South Africa and the Judiciary. The JSC decision affirms that no one is above the law and we hope that it sets the standard for the future judicial conduct," Tisetso Magama, the Africa 4 Palestine spokesman, said.
Meanwhile, another complainant group, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told Sputnik that it was shocked to hear the comments by Mogoeng.
"We welcome the decision in a good light. I was shocked by the comments the judge made and the platform was not a suitable one. As a judge, he became against impartiality and got himself involved in political areas and religious ideology, often a difficult terrain to navigate," Martin Jansen, the chairperson of the rights group, said.
Notably, Mogoeng has so far refused to apologize "even if 50 million people were to march every day for 10 years for me to do so," insisting that there was no constitutional breach.
