Civil rights organisation AfriForum has welcomed the appointment of a Judicial Conduct Tribunal to investigate its complaint of racism against Judge Nkola Motata.
It had received a letter from the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) confirming the tribunal's formation, AfriForum said on Thursday.
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng had assigned KwaZulu-Natal High Court Deputy Judge President Achmat Jappie, Eastern Cape High Court Judge Nambitha Dambuza, and attorney Ilan Lax to hear the matter from June 19 to 21 in Johannesburg.
The tribunal was expected to investigate and report on Motata's conduct following a car accident in January 2007.
Motata was found guilty of drunk driving in 2009, two years after crashing his car into the wall of businessman Richard Baird's Johannesburg property.
He allegedly said, while drunk: "No boer is going to undermine me; this used to be the white man's land but it isn't anymore."
He also allegedly told a metro policemen who tried to calm him down not to support a white man.
A recording of the racial slurs and other insults was accepted into evidence in his trial in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court.
Motata later went to the High Court in Pretoria to try and stop the JSC from convening a tribunal to probe the complaint about his remarks.
Motata argued that there was no code of conduct applicable to judges in the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) Act relating to misconduct.
In a statement, AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said section 177 of the Constitution allowed for the president to remove a judge from his position if the JSC found him guilty of gross misconduct.
The National Assembly then had to approve the judge's removal by a two-thirds majority.
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