NATIONAL NEWS - Chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng revealed on Tuesday that former finance minister Pravin Gordhan had approached him to ask how “his close friend” judge Dhaya Pillay had fared, after she had just completed an interview for a vacancy on the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Mogoeng said his office once received a call from Gordhan seeking an appointment with him.
Gordhan on Wednesday released a statement seeking to clarify his stance on these allegations of the meeting in links with Tuesday’s event.
“I did not meet the Chief Justice in April 2016 to discuss Judge Pillay. The enquiry about Judge Pillay was purely incidental to the purpose of the meeting,” said Gordhan.
“I want to state emphatically that I would never, and nor did I in any way, seek to influence the Chief Justice or the JSC in the appointment of judges, whose independence I have always respected,” said Gordhan.
I did not meet the Chief Justice in April 2016 to discuss Judge Pillay. The enquiry about Judge Pillay was purely incidental to the purpose of the meeting.
“As a member of the Executive branch of the state, I am very conscious of the fact that our democracy is based on the separation of powers and the relative independence of the judiciary, legislature, and executive.”
“Any misrepresentation, wilfully or not, of the 6 April 2016 meeting with the Chief Justice, by political actors who want to defend state capture and corruption, is highly regrettable.”
