Judge Hlophe’s wife hits back at ‘delusional’ deputy judge president

Western Cape deputy judge president Patricia Goliath is “delusional” and a complaint she has lodged about the court’s president is “simply a bitter spew to oust the judge president”.

This is according to Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe, who submitted a written comment to the Office of the Chief Justice this week, in response to a complaint of gross misconduct laid against her by Goliath.

Salie-Hlophe’s comment was leaked on social media yesterday.

This followed shock revelations by Goliath in a complaint submitted to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) two weeks ago.

In her complaint, Goliath accused Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe of misconduct, including nepotism, assault and mismanagement.

But Salie-Hlophe, who is married to Hlophe, was also the subject of a complaint lodged by Goliath.

Both Hlophe and Salie-Hlophe have denied the allegations against them.

The dispute between two judicial leadership figures is perhaps the most serious one that has ever played out on the public stage in the democratic era.

In her complaint, Goliath alleges that Salie-Hlophe was actively involved in the management of the judges of the division, and that she determined her own working hours.

She also alleged that Hlophe assaulted another judge in an incident involving Salie-Hlophe, and it is insinuated that Hlophe may have been involved in mistreating his wife during an argument at the couple’s home and that he had shown his wife preferential treatment in assigning her the murder trial of Jason Rohde.

However, in her blistering response to Goliath’s complaint, Salie-Hlophe said it was simply a “bitter spew to oust the judge president, the ambition to succeed him and to garner herself the entitlement she believes she is rather more suitable for”.

Salie-Hlophe said it was a “complete fabrication, wrongful and unlawful” to claim that she was involved in the administration and management of the division.

“Goliath is delusional in her averments that I have liberties and working conditions which are not otherwise extended and exercised by other colleagues.

“Bizarrely – and, quite frankly, humorously – Goliath makes malicious reports on my private life launched like a scud missile to injure me, my family, my elders and my community in an attempt to destroy me and advance her career.

“It is rather apparent that I am the ‘collateral damage’ in an attack targeted at the judge president,” she said.

In her complaint about Hlophe, who is her direct superior at the court, Goliath alleged that he prevented her from carrying out her duties and had referred to her as “a piece of sh*t” during a meeting with other colleagues.

Goliath was appointed deputy judge president in the Western Cape in 2016 and acted as a judge in the Constitutional Court in 2018.

Upon her return, she alleges, Hlophe had taken over all her responsibilities, or had assigned them to other employees.

Goliath also reveals that Hlophe accused her of interfering in his personal life in October last year.

Goliath said this emerged during a “personal domestic incident at his house between him, his wife and a third party, another woman”.

She said Salie-Hlophe had called her from Hlophe’s home, and had “disclosed certain information — which I elect not to set out herein”.

Goliath added that Salie-Hlophe had asked her to go to her own house to check on the children.

“She later arrived at her house … clearly distressed and in pain. She asked me to take her to hospital and explained in graphic detail what had transpired at Hlophe JP’s [sic] house. Her hand, it appears, was injured during an altercation. The injury was sufficiently serious to require stitches,” said Goliath.

The most serious charge that Goliath has made against Hlophe is that he allegedly attempted to influence her to assign two judges to a case involving the nuclear power deal that would be favourable to former president Jacob Zuma.

Hlophe’s legal adviser, Barnabas Xulu, said that Goliath’s complaint was nothing more than gossip.

Sello Chiloane, spokesperson for the JSC, said the judicial conduct committee was investigating the complaint.

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