Pretoria - Former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has issued a public apology after the Judicial Conduct Appeals Committee found against him over his remarks on Israel.
The committee gave him 10 days to submit his apology and this came yesterday afternoon, as the deadline was about to end.
Justice Mogoeng caused controversy two years ago when he made pro-Israel comments during a webinar hosted by The Jerusalem Post.
He had refused to back down when political parties and others asked him to do so. Pro-Palestinian groups had lodged a complaint after he had made the remarks and asked the Judicial Service Commission to investigate him.
Justice Mogoeng had appealed the earlier decision by Judge Phineas Mojapelo ordering him to apologise for his comments in 2020, but he had lost this bid.
The committee said it agreed that Justice Mogoeng had breached the Judicial Code of Conduct with his remarks.
In a statment yesterday, Justice Mogoeng said: “I, Mogoeng Mogoeng, the former Chief Justice of the Republic of South Africa, hereby apologise unconditionally for becoming involved in political controversy through my utterances at the online seminar (webinar) hosted by The Jerusalem Post on 23 June 2020, in which I participated.”
“Just before the dawn of day number 666 of the lockdown in our land, I was informed of the outcome of my appeal against the five findings made against me and the sanctions imposed on me …” While some of the sanctions were set aside on appeal, he was still called on to publicly apologise.
“Part of the remedial action or sanction, namely the retraction of the vow to not apologise for what I believe to be just and right, even if 50 million people were to march daily for 10 years, was set aside.
“And so was the order that I apologise and retract in the presence of the media and my Constitutional Court colleagues. But the other parts were confirmed,” he said.
Justice Mogoeng said he was thankful that he was not ordered to “renounce God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and my faith in Him”.
“I have not been ordered to renounce the Holy Bible; I have not been ordered to renounce prayer; and I have not been ordered to renounce my love for Israel and Palestine and my love for the Jews and the Palestinians as well as my love for all people.
“Some possibly then expect of me to be very hateful of Israel and the Jews, I (am) not. I love (the) Jews, I love Israel. I love Palestine. I love the Palestinians. I love everybody.”
Justice Moegoeng added that he never said he would not apologise.
“I would never refuse to apologise for or retract what I believe to be wrong, however, correct I might have initially believed it to be. But, I will never apologise for or retract what I believe to be correct.”
Justice Mogoeng added that there was a tendency to ”follow the drowning voices that often dictate the narrative either without reflection, or for fear of massive reputational or positional or other conceivable damage”.
“I would rather suffer the worst imaginable consequences than hypocritically apologise for what I don’t believe to be wrong – just to please those who think they have the right to demand and secure an apology or to avoid being labelled arrogant.”
He said he stands by his refusal to retract or apologise for any part of what he said during the webinar.
“The operative expression here is ‘unless forced by the law’,” he said.
He pointed out that the Judicial Conduct Committee was a creature of statute – the law. Unless set aside, its orders are lawful and binding. Justice Mogoeng said he was now forced by the law to do the same, as he was not above the law.
Pretoria News