Justice Minister Jeff Radebe yesterday offered "unsolicited advice" to a magistrate being interviewed for a position at the KwaZulu-Natal High Court who has not paid maintenance for three children, despite DNA tests proving paternity at "99.9%".
"There is no hope in hell that another test will prove otherwise," Radebe told Durban Magistrate Sibusiso Msani, who applied for a court postponement over the matter.
"Science is not a voodoo or a magic," Radebe said.
Msani was one of seven candidates being interviewed by the Judicial Service Commission in Cape Town for three vacant positions on the KZN bench.
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng raised the disputed paternity at the beginning of Msani's interview, questioning whether he had attempted to finalise the matter.
The magistrate conceded that he had not gone for a second DNA test. He attempted to paint the mother of the children as "a difficult person" who had been receiving child support grants for the three children, three others "who were not hers" and a "disability grant, when she is healthier than all of us".
Some on the panel suggested Msani withdraw his candidacy, which he refused to do.
The commission delved into matters ranging from developing jurisprudence on "the point" at which land is "invaded" and the state's rights in these circumstances, to the development of customary law with candidates who included Legal Resources Centre attorney Mahendra Chetty and Magistrate Nkosinathi Chili.
Only two of the candidates were women: Magistrate Sharon Marks and Advocate Thobo Poyo-Dlwati
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