MEDIA RESPONSES TO SPECIMEN DRAFT INTELLIGENCE REPORT ON JUDICIAL CORRUPTION IN SOUTH AFRICA
(Please don't expect any serious investigative journalism here.)
1. On 28 November, News24 journalist Karyn Maughan asked Brink some questions by WhatsApp. No, Hlophe JP wasn't 'approached for his input in the report'. Back in 2019/20 he telephoned Brink in response to his enquiry about the reason for the resignation of a certain woman appointed to the first JCC Tribunal convened to try him. (Hlophe JP directly confirmed what Brink had already established in this regard from two sound sources, including the then-secretary of the JSC.) Miss Maughan's further questions are answered by the information contained in the footers on the first and last pages of the report and in the report itself. Miss Maughan had a go at discrediting the report with a hit-piece on Brink in her newspaper gossip column, written in her fingerprint ditzy personality-politics style. It's evident from her WhatsApp enquiry that she'd carefully read the report, and would have appreciated that its exceedingly grave allegations are squarely vouched by supporting records, referenced and linked in it -- which she clearly hadn't bothered studying -- yet in her headline she told the lie that the report is 'fake' and makes 'false "judicial corruption" claims'. (Such is the grotesquely dishonest yellow journalism that one's come to expect from this overtly partisan wilting-bimbo member of 'the unskilled middle class'.) Here's the headline and a link to the paywalled article; Maughan's complete article is free at polity.org.
2. On 1 December, the Law Society's LegalBrief gunned the report down without examining the evidence supporting its claims. Screenshot of the article; full text.
3. Holomisa wants intelligence committee to probe report on allegations of corruption in judiciary
4. State Security Agency distances itself from ‘report’ on allegations of corruption in judiciary
5. Parliamentary committee will not entertain discredited SSA letter to Ramaphosa
7. Zondo, Mlambo dismantle fake judicial corruption accusations, urge public to 'protect judges'
8. Raymond Zondo shoots down accusations of captured judiciary
9. Zondo calls for independent judiciary ('Zondo was speaking during the third and final day of the 2023 Judges Conference. In the past two days, the judiciary has examined issues such as maintaining its independence and shielding judges from harm.')