Only a 'sworn enemy of democracy' would make up claims that the judiciary is captured: Mogoeng

No member of the judiciary has been captured, nor are they corrupt, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said on Friday.

He also called on all the unnamed accusers who had made "gratuitous allegations" of corruption against judges to come out into the open, to provide evidence and to be prepared to testify in court.

Mogoeng was responding to media reports relating to allegations of corruption levelled against members of the South African judiciary.

A list of judges and other leaders in the criminal justice system who are alleged to have received cash from Cyril Ramaphosa's CR17 campaign for the ANC presidency has been doing the rounds on social media.

Addressing the media on Friday, Mogoeng said there was no truth to the allegations.

"I have been assured by all the provincial leaders of colleagues against whom disturbing allegations of corruption and capture have been made, that those allegations are false. In the absence of concrete proof to the contrary, I believe my colleagues," Mogoeng said.

Mogoeng called on anyone with evidence to support these "confidence-damaging allegations" that any judge was corrupt or had been captured to stop hiding behind fictional identities or names on media platforms.

"Please, number one, make your true identity and contact details known to us and the South African public; tell us which judge has been captured or corrupted and by whom.

"If money or any benefit was given, how much and when? And produce verifiable documentary or electronic proof to that effect and, for the sake of the South African public that deserves a corruption-free judiciary, be prepared to give evidence, even in a court of law or a commission of inquiry," Mogoeng said.

Mogoeng said the judiciary was dead against corruption and capture and said South Africans needed and deserved a credible, independent and truly transparent judiciary to root out these injurious practices.

"Gratuitous allegations of corruption can only delegitimise the judiciary and imperil our constitutional democracy," Mogoeng said.

Mogoeng said he had asked the secretary general of the Office of the Chief Justice to ask national police commissioner Gen Kehla Sitole to use all relevant capacities at his disposal to uncover the real forces behind the mask or masks making apparently gratuitous allegations of corruption or capture against the judiciary.

"Only a sworn enemy of our constitutional democracy would make allegations so grave against the judiciary without the evidence to back them up.

"It bears repetition that if you love this country and have evidence of capture or corruption against the judiciary, please share it with us and the public and be prepared to testify to its veracity," Mogoeng said.