MK Party’s urgent bid to halt upcoming JSC interviews fails

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) will be able to proceed with interviews to fill 27 vacancies across various courts from Monday after the MK Party's court application to have the interviews postponed failed on Saturday.

“The application is dismissed with each party paying their own costs,” judge Stuart Wilson ruled.

The MK party went urgently to the Johannesburg high court after the JSC refused to grant a request that the interviews be postponed. The request followed an order by the Western Cape High Court, last Friday, interdicting MKP’s leader in parliament John Hlophe from participating in the upcoming interviews. 

Hlophe, now an MK Party MP, was impeached as a judge earlier this year and there is ongoing litigation about whether it was lawful for the National Assembly to send him as one of its six delegates to the JSC.

The order of the Western Cape High Court was an interim order interdicting Hlophe from attending the interviews while the litigation is ongoing.

* This is a developing story

TimesLIVE