{"id":101122,"date":"2025-10-07T08:16:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T06:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=101122"},"modified":"2025-10-07T08:16:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T06:16:54","slug":"civil-society-demands-malemas-exit-from-judicial-appointments-amid-credibility-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/civil-society-demands-malemas-exit-from-judicial-appointments-amid-credibility-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil society demands Malema\u2019s exit from judicial appointments amid credibility crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

7 October 2025 | 08:16 CAT
\n3-minute read<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image: SowetanLive<\/p><\/div>\n

In a public intervention on Sunday, three prominent civil society organisations \u2013 Freedom Under Law, Defend Our Democracy, and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC) \u2013 jointly called for Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema to be removed from the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), arguing that his recent criminal conviction and appellate intentions render him unfit for a seat on the body tasked with appointing the country\u2019s judges.<\/p>\n

The JSC holds a pivotal role in South Africa\u2019s constitutional democracy: it compiles the shortlist of candidates for judicial appointments \u2014 including for the Constitutional Court \u2014 and the president cannot override its recommendations. In effect, the JSC is the gatekeeper of judicial integrity and independence, making the fitness of its members essential to public confidence in the courts.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> on Radio Islam International, Chris Oxtoby, a research lawyer with Freedom Under Law, explained why Malema\u2019s continued involvement poses a grave conflict and threatens the legitimacy of the JSC.<\/p>\n

According to Oxtoby, Malema has signalled that he intends to appeal both his firearms conviction and an earlier hate-speech judgment \u2014 and were he to remain on the JSC while such appeals linger, a \u201cserious conflict of interest\u201d arises. He argued that serving as a judge-selector while simultaneously contesting charges in court presents an untenable overlap of roles.<\/p>\n

He cautioned that in the period while appeals might drag on \u2014 potentially years \u2014 Malema sitting on the body that appoints judges would create serious perception issues.<\/p>\n

He further stressed that remarks made by Malema in the wake of his conviction, where he publicly implied that the magistrate had acted on racist motivations, were deeply problematic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EFF statement made associated the judiciary with \u2026 being \u2026 part of a broader racist conspiracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oxtoby emphasised that such public statements, which tie the judiciary to a conspiratorial racial bias, are fundamentally incompatible with someone who would be expected to participate in objective selection of judges.<\/p>\n

He also laid out possible recourse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would hope that if he doesn\u2019t voluntarily step down, that Parliament \u2026 would take action.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that because Malema occupies his JSC seat as a nominee of Parliament, it falls within Parliament\u2019s authority to remove him \u2014 and urged legislators to consider that path if Malema refuses to resign.<\/p>\n

Finally, Oxtoby acknowledged that if Parliament fails to act, civil society might turn to courts, given existing jurisprudence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is \u2026 the court decision \u2026 that \u2026 someone must be fit and proper to sit on the JSC.\u201d<\/p>\n

He declined to commit on behalf of the signatory organisations whether they would litigate that question.<\/p>\n

The joint statement by Freedom Under Law and its partners came in response to Malema\u2019s conviction on 1 October 2025 for the unlawful possession and discharge of a firearm in a public place \u2014 an incident dating back to 2018. \u00a0While sentencing is scheduled for January 2026, the verdict has already triggered calls for removal from the JSC by linking the ruling to unfitness for judicial oversight.<\/p>\n

In parallel, earlier this year, Malema was found by the Equality Court to have made remarks amounting to hate speech, and in May, the High Court upheld a parliamentary finding that he breached the Code of Ethics in a JSC interview by injecting personal political interests into the process. \u00a0Civil society groups argue that these repeated adverse findings make it untenable for Malema to serve in a body charged with safeguarding judicial independence.<\/p>\n

Listen to the full interview<\/a> on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Junaid Kharsany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7 October 2025 | 08:16 CAT 3-minute read In a public intervention on Sunday, three prominent civil society organisations \u2013 Freedom Under Law, Defend Our Democracy, and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC) \u2013 jointly called for Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema to be removed from the Judicial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":101123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-07-081552.png?fit=646%2C355&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-qj0","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 16:56:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}