ATC141028 : Report of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on the Report on the Conditional Upliftment of the Provisional Suspension of Magistrate P Hole, dated 28 October 2014:
Justice and Constitutional Development
Report of the Portfolio
Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on the Report on the Conditional
Upliftment of the Provisional Suspension of M
agistrate P Hole,
dated 28 October
2014:
The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional
Services, having considered the Report on the conditional upliftment of the
provisional suspension of M
agistrate P Hole
, reports as follow
s:
-
Mr Hole is a
Regional Magistrate at Kimberly. (He was appointed a magistrate in
December 2006 and, in March 2007, was appointed as a Regional Magistrate.)
-
Mr Hole was
provisionally suspended on 29 September 2011 pending an investigation into
his alleged misconduct. Parliament confirmed Mr Holes provisional
suspension on 24 November 2011. Subsequent to the suspension, the Legal
Aid Board Northern Cape and the Director of Public Prosecution
addressed a memorandum to the Magistrate Commission requesting that Mr
Holes suspension be uplifted in order for him to finalise his partly-head
matters.
Childline
Northern Cape also
brought an application before the Northern Cape High Court to have his
suspension lifted to enable him to finalise his partly-heard matters. In
its papers,
Childline
alleged that the
suspension of Mr Hole would cause tremendous hardship on the women and
children involved in the said partly-heard matters.
-
The Justice Minister considered the
application and the memorandum and recommended that Parliament pass a
resolution in terms of Section 13(3) (g) of the Magistrate Act of 1993 to
lift the provisional suspension of Mr Hole. The Minister further noted
that the lifting of Mr Holes suspension would not affect the disciplinary
process. T
he National Assembly approved the conditional
upliftment of Mr Holes suspension on 20 June 2013.
The
Magistrates Commission was requested to
provide regular reports to the National Assembly on whether Mr Hole is
abiding by the conditions of the upliftment and the progress of the cases
before Mr Hole.
-
The progress
reports indicates
that 17 of
the 26 partly heard matters have been finalised and the disciplinary
proceeding were scheduled to continue in September and October 2014.
-
The Committee
welcomes the fact that Mr Hole is complying with the conditions of the
upliftment of his suspension. The Committee is also pleased that Mr Hole
is close to finalizing all partly heard matters before him.
Report for information
purposes
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