Mogoeng is not a moegoe

Talk in the corridors of power is that President Jacob Zuma's first choice for chief justice was hesitant to agree to the nomination because she feared a massive backlash from those who believe the job should go to Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke.

The president had picked her name from a list of about five CVs submitted to him. He sent emissaries to find out if she would be interested. She wanted the job, but she was reluctant, the emissaries reported back to Zuma.

Given that many in society - and apparently in the Constitutional Court itself - are convinced that the highly accomplished and respected Moseneke was the most suitable to ascend to the highest judiciary post in the land, she believed she would be caught in the crossfire as lobby groups tear into Zuma's decision.

The campaigning against her nomination would be vicious and she and her family would not come out of it unscathed, she must have thought. Hence her insistence at one stage that she would only accept nomination if she was satisfied she enjoyed universal support, especially among her colleagues.

By talk in the political circles was that the job was hers. The ANC Women's League, using the fact that it was Women's Month, even publicly declared that it supported a woman candidate for chief justice.

But days went by without a definite answer to Zuma, and the president soon began to cast the net wider. He eventually settled on Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, who had also featured on the list of five submitted to Zuma.

And so the country lost out on a candidate who would have probably been more suitable - far less controversial - than Mogoeng.

One wonders if, as she watched the Mogoeng drama unfold over the past three weeks, the judge didn't think that her worst fears had been confirmed.

This is not to say the many legitimate questions about Mogoeng's past judgments relating to gender violence, rape and homosexuality should not have been posed.

Nor that his capacity to provide leadership to the court should not have been interrogated.

Much of the public scrutiny Mogoeng has endured ever since Zuma named him as his candidate is perfectly acceptable in a democratic society that values transparency.

But there were those who, in expressing their disapproval of his candidature, unfortunately went overboard - portraying him as a bumbling fool who really has no business rubbing shoulders with some of the country's greatest minds on the Bench, not to mention leading them.

After Mogoeng's two-day grilling by the Judicial Services Commission, the nation remains divided over his suitability. But the one thing that the interview - which was broadcast live on television - revealed was that Mogoeng is not the "moegoe" some would have wanted us to believe him to be.

Robust public debate is the lifeblood of democracy. But it should not be conducted in a manner that denigrates the subjects of our debates and the offices they hold.

Whatever each one may think of Mogoeng and his candidature, the reality is that he is a Constitutional Court judge, and that office needs to be treated with utmost respect and dignity.

Some have argued that "the attacks" on Mogoeng had little to do with him and more with the fact that he had been chosen by Zuma.

While there may be merit to this argument, it must be said that the tendency to cast aspersions on presidential appointments began long before the man from Inkandla was voted into power.

Moseneke may be everybody's darling today, but there were murmurings of discontent in 2002 when then president Thabo Mbeki appointed him to the Constitutional Court just a year after he became a High Court judge. Much was made of his Pan Africanist roots and his friendship with the president's legal adviser Mojanku Gumbi.

A few years later there was widespread criticism of Mbeki's appointment of Judge Sisi Khampepe to head a commission into the future of the then elite investigative unit, the Scorpions. A conflict of interest was suggested, based on the fact that Khampepe's husband - Siza - had shares in a company that had a stake in another group that benefitted from the arms deal.

There were no apologies for these insinuations when Khampepe, despite serious lobbying by the police and other state institutions, ruled in favour of the Scorpions.

The same happened with Vusi Pikoli when he was appointed the national director of Public Prosecutions. His ANC history meant that he would not be independent, we were told. Yet he was to later prove his detractors wrong, defying pressure from his political superiors and launching a probe into the activities of the then police commissioner, Jackie Selebi.

Need I remind you that there were many sceptics when Thuli Madonsela was appointed Public Protector?

In all these instances, the individuals have not only excelled in their roles, they have proved to be fiercely independent despite the fact that they were appointed by the president.

Who knows, maybe Mogoeng will surprise us too if appointed chief justice.