Mkhize’s ambitions ‘bothers on stupidity’

[NameOfBeast]

I HAVE acted as a judge. If I was fit to act as a judge, I am fit to hold the post (of national director of public prosecutions).” So says Muzi Wilfred Mkhize SC, who, according to well-informed sources, had all but put his name on the door of Vusi Pikoli’s office.

If I’m good enough to preside in court, he said in effect, I’m good enough to head the prosecution service. But he isn’t good enough to preside in court. Far from it.

I’m basing this conclusion on a judgment by Mkhize at the end of a case he heard and decided on January 15 this year: S v Mbatha and six others.

The 19-page document is unintelligible throughout. No judge producing work of this quality could be said to be “fit” for a job on the bench. He summarises the first count faced by the accused, namely conspiracy to commit housebreaking and theft.

It was claimed by the state, says the judgment, that the accused were guilty in that steal from sometime prior to 10 August 2007, the exact date Unknown and at or near Mthatha the accused unlawfully and intentionally conspired with one another to aid procure the commission of or to commit the offence of housebreaking with the intent to and theft .

And, my favourite: He received from the organised crime the amount of R201000 on the 10th August 2007. The Manager had been put in the safe on the 9th August 2007 was Xolelwa Peter. He does not know how much was the damage as everything was done by Head Office.

Who would compile a judgment of this quality? Not someone fit to be a judge: it shows neither respect nor aptitude for the position.

As for Mkhize’s aspirations, imagine the chaos if a director of prosecutions produced documents as incomprehensible as this in an important criminal matter. The idea of Mkhize being able so much as to discern corruption, let alone prosecute it, is far-fetched in the extreme.

On the other hand, if Cape Town Judge President John Hlophe can set his determined sights on becoming Chief Justice, why should being unfit for the job deter Mkhize?

http://www.businessday.co.za/weekender/article.aspx?ID=BD4A934313

 

[Balstrome]

Give them a wig and call em a Judge. (it's only fake hair)

 

[LazyLion]

‘bothers on stupidity’???

shouldn't that be "borders on stupidity"?

 

[TheHiveMind]

wow.. and he is in control of peoples sentencing? That is a crime..

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

‘bothers on stupidity’???

shouldn't that be "borders on stupidity"?

Yes, that is the point. This judge has no idea about how to write coherent English sentences.

 

[JungleBoy]

Pierre de Vos's contribution:
Quote:
I must say the tone of the column made me feel uneasy. Perhaps because I am not a first language English speaker myself and sometimes get my tenses mixed up as well, I felt a bit sorry for Adv Mkhize. Was this kind of mocking of a senior Advocate not perhaps a kind of thinly veiled racism? I am on record as saying that the ethically challenged Mkhize would be the worst possible candidate for head of the NDPP, but should one not be a bit sensitive to cultural differences when one reads judgments by individuals whose first language is not English?

After reading the judgment in its entirety I must say Ricard does have a point - although her gleeful exposure of Mkhize still leaves me uncomfortable. It is not (only) the fact that the judgment is incoherent and at places incomprehensible. It is that it utterly lacks legal reasoning.

There is just no possible excuse for an Advocate or Judge to write such bad English.

 

[Hoof-Hearted]

There is just no possible excuse for an Advocate or Judge to write such bad English.

100% How the hell did he ever pass a board exam ????

[edit ... oh wait .... I guess the same way some people get their drivers' licences :\]

 

[semiautomatix]

There is just no possible excuse for an Advocate or Judge to write such bad English.

Good gracious, could you imagine what his Latin must be like?