Former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng's presidential bid for 2024 has met with mixed reactions, with some people questioning its lawfulness.
Mogoeng made headlines this week after the Sunday Tribune reported he was running for the presidency.
He was reportedly selected as a presidential candidate by the All African Alliance Movement launched earlier this year.
The movement’s secretary-general, Bishop Mishark Tebe, told the publication South Africans want a leader “of high calibre”.
Can Mogoeng be SA’s next president?
According to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) 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 remains bound by some provisions of the act, which states that “all activities of a judge no longer on active service must be compatible with his or her status as a retired judge”.
A retired judge is also expected not to do anything that would bring the judiciary into disrepute.
“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.”
The act adds that “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.
'A practical lesson in life'
Former Gauteng premier and former COPE deputy leader Mbhazima Shilowa weighed in on the reports, claiming Mogoeng is “about to receive a practical lesson in life”.
“He will put the US right-wing evangelists to shame,” said Shilowa.
Some social media users agreed, saying Mogoeng could learn a thing or two from Shilowa. This is in reference to the former Gauteng premier's involvement in the formation of COPE in 2008, a breakaway political party that contested against the ANC in 2009.
Other examples, according to users, included Bishop Mvumelwano “Mvume” Dandala and Mamphela Ramphele.
In 2010, two years after the formation of COPE, Dandala asked the Methodist Church of Southern Africa to take him back.
In 2014, Ramphele announced she was quitting party politics, a year after launching her political party Agang SA.
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Can Mogoeng Mogoeng be SA's next president? Not according to the JSC Act
Image: Freddy Mavunda
Former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng's presidential bid for 2024 has met with mixed reactions, with some people questioning its lawfulness.
Mogoeng made headlines this week after the Sunday Tribune reported he was running for the presidency.
He was reportedly selected as a presidential candidate by the All African Alliance Movement launched earlier this year.
The movement’s secretary-general, Bishop Mishark Tebe, told the publication South Africans want a leader “of high calibre”.
Can Mogoeng be SA’s next president?
According to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) 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 remains bound by some provisions of the act, which states that “all activities of a judge no longer on active service must be compatible with his or her status as a retired judge”.
A retired judge is also expected not to do anything that would bring the judiciary into disrepute.
“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.”
The act adds that “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.
'A practical lesson in life'
Former Gauteng premier and former COPE deputy leader Mbhazima Shilowa weighed in on the reports, claiming Mogoeng is “about to receive a practical lesson in life”.
“He will put the US right-wing evangelists to shame,” said Shilowa.
Some social media users agreed, saying Mogoeng could learn a thing or two from Shilowa. This is in reference to the former Gauteng premier's involvement in the formation of COPE in 2008, a breakaway political party that contested against the ANC in 2009.
Other examples, according to users, included Bishop Mvumelwano “Mvume” Dandala and Mamphela Ramphele.
In 2010, two years after the formation of COPE, Dandala asked the Methodist Church of Southern Africa to take him back.
In 2014, Ramphele announced she was quitting party politics, a year after launching her political party Agang SA.
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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