Anti-poaching organisation Saving the Wild will this week make an application to become an “interested party” in the disciplinary hearing of suspended KwaZulu-Natal regional court president Eric Nzimande.
The application will be heard by retired Supreme Court of Appeal judge Jeremiah Shongwe, who is chairing the hearing on Thursday.
Many of the 162 charges of misconduct Nzimande is facing relate to allegations that he took money from aspirant magistrates in return for him recommending their appointments as acting or permanent regional court magistrates.
The charge sheet, while detailing who got posts and how much they allegedly paid into his bank accounts, is silent on the nitty gritty of the deals.
However, Saving the Wild has in the past been vocal about what it alleges were corrupt relationships between Nzimande and some of the magistrates who, the organisation claimed, were being soft on rhino poaching cases.
Should the application be approved, Saving the Wild will be entitled to make submissions when all the evidence has been presented.
TimesLIVE Premium understands that the application is not being opposed by the Magistrate’s Commission or Nzimande.
Thursday will be the last day of the hearing — even though it had been set to run until the end of next week.
So far, only the charges have been read into the record by evidence leaders, advocates Lisle Mboweni and Keatlaretse Magano.
While Nzimande was expected on Tuesday to give a detailed plea explanation, this was stalled.
Mboweni told the hearing it had been discovered that “critical documents” were missing from the bundle and would be needed to counter some of the issues raised in a minute prepared by Nzimande’s attorney Ravindra Maniklall.
She said the commission would be “severely prejudiced” without these documents and without further consultations with witnesses.
Judge Shongwe agreed to postpone the matter and said new dates for the hearing would be set on Thursday.
Nzimande has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Apart from the payment for jobs allegations, he is also accused of sexually harassing an acting magistrate, claiming she owed him for giving her a job and sending her a cellphone picture of his genitals, gambling at a local casino during work hours, and associating “through repeated telephone calls” with an accused in a human trafficking matter who was appearing before a magistrate “under his control”.
Two other charges relate to his failure to monitor and manage Umlazi regional court magistrate Kholeka Bodlani, who was, it has now been widely reported, handing out suspended sentences to child rapists. It is alleged he was informed in writing of these irregularities but did nothing.
Nzimande has also been charged criminally.
He is facing five counts of corruption, relating to the payment for jobs allegations and will appear in the Durban high court in May.
Nzimande was suspended in 2018 and has been on full pay since then, reportedly earning R6m during that time.
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