Few South African courts have yet issued judgments this year, but the legal world is far from bored. A sensational affidavit, sworn by the deputy judge president of the high court in Cape Town, Patricia Goliath, has thrown open the tensions among judges of the Western Cape High Court, and, most particularly, the alleged abuse of power, racism and unconstitutional behaviour of that court’s judge president, John Hlophe. 

Western Cape High Court Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath has sent her complaint in the form of an affidavit to the Judicial Service Commission. She asks that the commission investigate her allegations, almost all of which relate to the behaviour of the judge president of the division, John Hlophe, and his wife, Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe.