Judge Nomonde Mngqibisa-Thusi, who was earlier found guilty of misconduct and being grossly negligent in breaching the Code of Judicial Conduct by not delivering a number of judgments on time, must write a letter of apology to Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo.
She also has to apologise via a letter to the attorneys of all the affected cases in which she delayed her judgments. Judge Mlambo should formally reprimand her and issue her with a written warning.
This is the sanction of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) following a report by a judicial conduct tribunal which investigated complaints against the suspended Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi.
In January last year the JSC requested the chief justice to appoint a judicial conduct tribunal to enquire into allegations of incapacity, gross incompetence, and gross misconduct against Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi.
These allegations were based on a complaint from Judge President Mlambo that on at least 27 occasions Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi failed to deliver judgments within a reasonable time. In five matters, judgments were delivered in a period ranging between 12 and 27 months in 14 matters, judgments were delivered within 10 to 19 months and in seven matters judgments were delayed by between seven and nine months.
The tribunal, which investigated the complaints, has delivered its report in which it concluded that the allegations of the failure by Judge Mngqibisa-Thusio to render judgments timeously had been established as a matter of fact.
It was found that she does not suffer from incapacity. She is also not grossly incompetent or guilty of gross misconduct.
The tribunal’s findings against Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi included that her failure to deliver judgements timeously was a breach of the Code of Judicial Conduct. It said that she took “no steps” to avoid the delays when she could have “and should have done so”.
Although she was ill and had spirituality challenges, these lasted for limited periods, the tribunal found after listening to evidence presented by her, by Judge Mlambo, and others.
According to the tribunal, she could have asked Judge Mlambo for time to write the judgments but failed to do so.
The commission said Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi realised that she was unable to produce the judgments timeously, but she did not take adequate steps to ensure that the judgments were delivered. Instead, she picked up new reserved judgments.
Numerous enquiries were sent by attorneys concerning the reserved judgments, but she did not change course. She did not have a proper explanation for not engaging with the judge president, the commission said.
While it was so that she did not wish to speak to the Judge President about personal matters, the failure to deliver judgments was not a personal matter, it said.
The commission found that there were strong mitigating factors, which included that Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi suffered from her spiritual illness, which was temporary. It said that when she recovered from her illness, she was able to complete the judgments. It was also a mitigating factor that last year there were no complaints about outstanding judgments.
The commission said Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi was a senior judge. She was aware of the need to deliver judgments timeously, and the obligation to report the reasons for not delivering judgments to the head of court.
The commission said her conduct had the potential to bring the proper administration of justice into disrepute.
Pretoria News