POLL | Would you vote for Mogoeng as president?

Former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng's potential move to politics has again sparked fierce debate.

Mogoeng was nominated as the presidential candidate for the newly-launched All African Alliance Movement. The party said it was responding to the decay it saw in society and would make several issues, including immigration and corruption, a focus of its campaign.

The movement will contain religious and social organisations from across the country with the aim to mobilise these into a cohesive party to advance their shared objectives.

Mogoeng has previously said he had a calling to be president of the country.

“I know I’m called to be president, but I don’t know when or how,” he said.

He recently returned from a trip to Israel with his wife where they embarked on a spiritual journey during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Speaking at the Word of Faith Christian Centre in Gqeberha last year, Mogoeng said corrupt individuals will soon be exposed and seemed to suggest God would have a hand in sparking South Africa’s economic growth. 

“There are treasures hidden until the right time, and as He [God] grows our currency and our economy, those treasures will be used to pay off the debts we have as a nation,” he said. 

Mogoeng hasn’t publicly confirmed that he has accepted the party's nomination for president.

While some said they would back Mogoeng, others claimed his possible presidential bid would come to nothing.

Mogoeng will have to make sacrifices if he is serious about becoming president, including possibly giving up his judicial perks.

According to the Judicial Service Commission Act, a retired judge “must not enter party politics”.

This means Mogoeng may be in breach of the act.

“A retired judge must not sit as a director of a public company. A retired judge must not become a member or professional partnership or body corporate. A retired judge must not enter party politics,” the act reads. 

Despite his retirement, Mogoeng is bound by some provisions of the act, which states “all activities of a judge no longer on active service must be compatible with his or her status as a retired judge”. 

“A judge discharged from active service must not be involved in any undertaking, business, fundraising, or other activity that is incompatible with the status of a judge.

“A judge who has been discharged from active service may only, with the written consent of the minister, acting after consultation with the chief justice, hold or perform any other office of profit or receive in respect of any service any fees, emoluments or other remuneration or allowances apart from his or her salary and any other amount which may be payable to him or her in his or her capacity as judge”. 

Attempts to get comment from Mogoeng and the All African Alliance Movement on his nomination were unsuccessful at the time of publishing this article. Any update will be included once received.

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