The Justice for Hlophe Alliance respects and welcomes the president's decision to nominate justice Sandile Ngcobo to succeed the soon to retire Chief Justice of South Africa, Pius Langa. This stance is in keeping with our pledge to be bound by the laws of this country and the institutions that govern it. We now want to take this opportunity to wish the Chief Justice designate everything of the best and success in his new role.

In our recent press release we acknowledged that justice Ngcobo would not be a bad choice and made our sentiments known in terms of how we respected him. Although we would have preferred justice Hlophe to succeed Langa, as a true agent for change and transformation in the judiciary, the president has spoken. We therefore support the president's decision but we will be watching these developments very closely and with a keen eye. In exercising his prerogative, we do not in any way believe that the president acted cowardly but instead we believe that he truly applied his mind in coming up with his choice.

We are gracious in defeat and we will live to fight another day when we hope to still catapult justice Hlophe to the position of Chief Justice in years to come. May justice Ngcobo excel in his role and ensure that true transformation as well as change which will reflect the demographics of this country does indeed take place under his tutelage.

We hope that all South Africans from all walks of life, (academia, media, legal fraternity & experts thereto, business, political parties and opinion makers etc) alike will equally welcome and respect this decision.

Most importantly, it must be put on record that all is not lost for the JFH Alliance and the announcement does not mean the end of the road for Hlophe either, contrary to what those who were opposed to our mission and are now rejoicing would like us to believe. There is still an option of pushing for Hlophe to secure one of two positions (that of deputy Chief Justice and/or constitutional court judge).

We alluded to this fall-back position in our press conference in mid July and in response to questions from the Mail & Guardian newspaper we echoed the same sentiments. We continue to believe therefore that justice Hlophe is still very much in the race and may very well end up in his destiny. The only difference is that the terrain has changed and this requires the JFH Alliance to change course.

We maintain that justice Hlophe will have done South Africa proud were he to occupy any of the afore-mentioned positions. To this end, our signature campaign which had up to so far garnered 100 000 signatures will now be focused on achieving this feat. This of course means that the JFH Alliance will have to start the process afresh but we will rise to the challenge.

The Justice for Hlophe's Alliance mission is not yet accomplished since when we still seek to ensure that the trumped charges against justice Hlophe will eventually be dropped. It became evident in the last hearing that the evidence presented by one of the judges is circumstantial and at worst circumspect.

When a supposed accuser states that, "I can draw no inference and do not believe that justice Hlophe was trying to unduly influence me and I continue to uphold this view". This statement made it clear as daylight in our minds that the decision to press charges against Hlophe was taken against his wishes. It also explains the rationale behind the two judges' preference for a separate legal counsel to represent them in this case.

We trust and pray that the truth will eventually come out in terms of what exactly motivated the other constitutional court judges to "seemingly" coerce their colleagues into lodging a complaint. It is our understanding that this decision was taken after a hastily convened meeting which took place on a Sunday. Interestingly this meeting lasted the whole day which again is proof that there was resistance from the two judges whom we believe eventually succumbed under pressure from their colleagues. This witch-hunt and a false crusade against Hlophe must stop forthwith as it makes a mockery of the judiciary.

Statement issued by Percy Gumbi on behalf of the Justice for Hlophe Alliance, August 7 2009

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