‘JSC should probe possible criminal conduct by Arms Deal judges’

Civil organisation, Open Secrets says it is now up to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to look into the possible criminal misconduct of retired judges Willie Seriti and Hendrick Musi during the arms deal inquiry.

The High Court in Pretoria dismissed a constitutional challenge to the JSC Act. Seriti and Musi had brought the legal challenge, questioning the JSC’s authority to investigate judges who were no longer in active service. The ruling paves the way for a JSC investigation into allegations of gross misconduct against the two retired judges.

Open Secrets is one of the organisations that lodged the complaint with the JSC.

The organisation’s lawyer, Luthando Vilakazi says, “It’s about making sure that the institutions that we have that do hold accountable perpetrators of misconduct, wrongdoing, criminal conduct are actually able to function. One of the things we asked for in the complaint was for any criminal conduct to also be pursued by the NPA should the tribunal find that there’s a chance that they may have been acting in criminal capacity.”

The full interview with Open Secret’s Luthando Vilakazi is in the video below: