The dream of a young boy in a cane field fades as the Hlophe cult grows

'The mind is a terrible thing to waste." That is the slogan of the United Negro College Fund, a scheme that has enabled many poor African-American children receive a tertiary education.

For decades these words have inspired tens of thousands of youngsters to get out of the ghetto and realise their full potential.

I am sure that, even if he never heard the slogan, the same sentiment inspired a little boy from KwaDukuza in KwaZulu-Natal to work hard to become one of the best legal minds in the land.

The name of that young man was John Mandlakayise Hlophe.

In an interview with the Sunday Times a few years ago, Hlophe told of how, as a youngster, he worked under the most inhumane conditions on sugar cane farms alongside his mother.

The need to protect poor people from the cruelty of farmers inspired him to study law. His acumen and hard work took him to the University of Cambridge, where he completed his doctorate in two years.

Thereafter he made his way up through academia, and later the judiciary.

Those who know Hlophe well speak of his remarkable mind.

Here is someone with the obvious potential to reach the highest levels and perform at a supreme level.

Shortly, Hlophe will be appearing before the Judicial Service Commission to argue that he is fit and proper to preside in the Constitutional Court, the institution that is the final guarantor of our republic's integrity.

He will walk in there with the din of a cheering mob ringing in his ears.

Because we reward notoriety in this country of ours, it is highly likely that Hlophe will make it to the bench. Whereupon, despite his questionable ethics, he will become one of the guardians of our integrity.

It has been rather depressing to observe the rise of the Hlophe cult.

To his credit, he did take a firm stance against racist behaviour by some members of the Cape Bar, who among other things were employing trickery to avoid their cases being heard by black judges. This rightly earned him the respect of many black people in the legal profession, who felt it was time someone as senior as him took on the powerful interests. They rallied around him and overnight he became transformation's warrior.

So, even when Hlophe behaved in an injudicious manner, his supporters would hear no ill of him. He was their gladiator on this battlefield and they would die with him.

When he acted most unethically during the Oasis debacle, his supporters continued to hold him aloft. Attempts to sanction him were seen as an enemy plot to tame the gladiator.

When it was revealed that his son's school fees were being paid by a law firm, thereby opening him up to possible conflict of interest, it was brushed aside as yet another anti-transformation plot. When he used crass dockyard language during tense interactions with fellow judges, his supporters looked for reasons of justification.

On each occasion he was able to summon an increasingly powerful support base to fight off censure.

And the more reckless he became, the more hero worship he got.

In his stand-off with the Constitutional Court, he was the automatic hero. Fortunately for him, his constituency was able to cow the Judicial Service Commission into taking a disgraceful decision to sweep the matter under the carpet. Which means we will never know who lied and who told the truth about what happened in the chambers of the Constitutional Court early last year. The commission should know that, because of its decision, it will always be followed by the pungent smell of cover-up.

Nonetheless, the judge's supporters are cheering as loudly and discordantly as an English yob mob on derby day.

In response to opposition parties' warnings about a "dark cloud" hanging over the judiciary, the Justice for Hlophe Alliance put out this Malema-esque statement: "The truth is that most of them (the decision's critics) live in Cape Town which is a city that is known for its unpredictable weather and cloudy conditions. They are so used to cloudy conditions that they sometimes mistaken (sic) sunshine for clouds because they have lived in the mountainous city for too long.

"Such has been their long stay there that their minds are already preconditioned to see clouds even where there is none (sic)."

This is the depth of thinking of some of those the honourable judge is surrounded by.

The damage Hlophe has caused goes way beyond the judiciary.

Young people making their way up the rungs of the legal profession will look upon this "icon" and believe that they should strive to have his ethical mores. Members of the public, who look on the judiciary as one of the institutions guarding the integrity of the republic, will see the actions of an apparently respected judge as normal behaviour and quite becoming of all citizens.

Our moral centre is already in bad shape. We dare not corrode it further.

As for the good judge, he is young enough to redeem himself by behaving like the man he dreamt of becoming when he was working the cane fields.

It would be sad to waste his mind simply because his ethical and moral radar have malfunctioned.