Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has reportedly hit back at whites for seeking to have him impeached for his recent comments on transformation.
According to the Cape Argus, Mogoeng told the South African chapter of the International Association of Women Judges during a keynote address that he was not a racist.
“If I was racist I would be saying only black women should benefit from transformation. Maybe there is something wrong with my logic,” Mogoeng said, according to the newspaper.
Last week, an impeachment complaint was made against Mogoeng.
The complaint, by Advocate Paul Hoffman, the director of the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa (IFAISA), claimed contempt of court, defeating the ends of justice or gross incompetence, IOL reported at the time.
The bid came after Mogoeng made “a racist and sexist attack against white male lawyers” during a speech on 6 July.
“Speaking at the Advocates for Transformation Dinner held on 6 July 2013, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng complained of what he called the apparent resistance to change by a good number of fellow South Africans who, to him, benefitted from opportunities reserved exclusively for them by the apartheid system,” read an excerpt from the IFAISA website.
“The Chief Justice well knows that it is foundational to our new constitutional order that the values of non-racism and non-sexism be upheld. The Chief Justice has sworn an oath of office that he will uphold the Constitution.
“To launch a racist and sexist attack against white male lawyers, which is what the Chief Justice has done, does not serve to achieve or advance the type of transformed nation that is envisaged in the Constitution.” – Cape Argus