Black lawyers and others have formed the Justice for Hlophe Alliance Hlophe has now become a national symbol of black pride just because so many whites don't like him.
The part in bold certainly doesn't apply to me. Been discussing the Judge John Hlophe case with a few friends this week.
and yeah I agree with Max Du Preez when he says that Hlophe has become a symbol for black pride. he is for me. Questionable business practices and trying to influence the Constitutional Court aside, I think some of the things he is championing make sense. I mean even the fact that he is lobying for support in order to become judge president is making legal history in SA coz its never been done before. I think they have about 23 candidates for the job, 16 whites and 8 Blacks. He has the experience and I know for sure that should he get the job, then some much needed change will happen in the justice system.
He is proposing
radical change. Something that is very unrainbow nation-like but i think we all realise that the rainbow nation is a farce and there is work to be done. And at this time, he is the only one who seems up to the challenge. Pius Langa didn't even make much of a difference, I doubt many people have even heard of him.
Not just appointing black judges, but having judges speak to the accused in their African languages. I don't think it is any use to have a black judge at the high court if he is still addressing u (the accused) in English. A lot of these common criminals do not understand English let alone all the Latin words used, so therefore to a large extent, nor do they understand the implications of their 'sentences'.
having grown up in an environment where literally all my male cousins in Soweto have all been in jail or died during hijackings etc. When u visit them in prison and ask about the sentencing, all they know is that they did wrong and how many years they are going to be in jail for. They don't know why or how it was decided that they will get 20 years and they simply don't care coz it doesn't really matter anyway.
I am not saying that criminals are helpless, because it seems they have more rights than the rest of us sometimes. But we have to start somewhere, and that's why i am making big fuss about Hlophe. Who knows, i might feel different next week