SAZF welcomes judicial probe into complaint about Desai’s conduct

The South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) this week welcomed the decision by the Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC) to launch an inquiry into the SAZF’s complaint about retired Judge Siraj Desai.

The SAZF last month lodged a complaint with the JCC against the highly respected Western Cape High Court judge, accusing him of action and conduct “entirely unbecoming of a judicial officer”. The SAZF charged that Desai had, over many years, breached the code of judicial conduct, and accused him of being a politicised judge. It also questioned his recent appointment as Legal Services Ombudsman in which his role is to safeguard the integrity of the legal profession.

For many years, Desai has been an active anti-Israel lobbyist and has openly shown support for pro-Palestine activities and lobby groups including the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Acting chairperson of the JCC, Sisi Khampepe this week designated Justice Nambitha Dambuza, a member of the JCC, to look into the complaint “to determine its merits”.

Said SAZF Legal Forum spokesperson Rolene Marks, “We are gratified that the JCC has taken on the issue given its serious nature and in spite of strident calls claiming that it should be dismissed.

“The SAZF believes that Judge Desai has made use of the prestige of his office to cause political controversy and advance his private interests including anti-Israel political movements and support for Iran, Hamas, and BDS,” she said.

Attorney Daniël Eloff of Hurter Spies Attorneys, told the SA Jewish Report that the SAZF’s complaint was “well drafted”.

“If the chief justice of South Africa could be accused of less controversial and volatile comments, then certainly at the very least this complaint by the SAZF should be investigated and some sort of opportunity for Judge Desai to answer to the complaints against him should be encouraged.

“In the past couple of years, there has been a lot of double standards where some have been held to account and others haven’t,” Eloff said. “Either this will fizzle out and will be swept under the rug, or it will play out and hopefully get the attention it deserves. If we want to say that this is truly a democracy, then all complaints should be handled equally.”

The complaint against Desai spans the period between 2009 and 2020 while he was a sitting judge.

The SAZF said Desai had failed to recuse himself in a case in which he was “obviously conflicted”, and involved himself in activities that used the position of his judicial office to promote a partisan political cause.

Desai, who served the legal profession for 43 years, is a well-known social activist and respected jurist.

He retired as a Western Cape High Court judge last year, and almost immediately accepted the ombud position, having been appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The SAZF has been criticised for the complaint, which it lodged on 10 June, by members of Africa4Palestine and the South African BDS Coalition. They set up a Facebook page called “Hands off Judge Desai”.

According to the complaint by the SAZF, last year, Desai while being interviewed on an Iranian YouTube channel, made “inappropriate comments” comparing Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini to President Nelson Mandela.

“To compare a world-renowned peacemaker like President Mandela to the despotic founding leader of a regime notorious for its disregard of human rights, and which is responsible for gross human-rights violations including torture and violence against thousands of people, is an insult to the people of South Africa, the Constitution, and our democratic institutions,” its statement said.

It said that Desai had also made “several other shocking remarks” during the interview regarding foreign policy, including referring to the United States – an important trading and diplomatic partner of South Africa – as the “great Satan”, which demonstrated that Desai had “engaged in conduct incompatible with his status as a judge of the high court”.

The SAZF said Desai in 2009 lent his stature as a judge to the drafting and issuing of the Cairo Declaration, which called for a global movement for Palestinian rights and a boycott of Israel.

In 2015, he gave an order in a review application brought by pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist organisations and activists against the City of Cape Town. There is allegedly no record in the judgment of him having disclosed his interest in BDS to the parties in that case.

In 2018, Desai welcomed Hamas during its visit to South Africa and said, “We hope to make an intellectual contribution to the resolution of the Palestinian issue, but we take our leadership from you, you are the leadership on the ground.”

“This, in spite of the fact that the Hamas charter includes direct calls for violence against Jewish people and the destruction of the state of Israel. Using the prestige of the judicial office to publicly promote an extremist organisation is clearly contrary to the precepts underlying the judicial code of conduct,” the complaint reads.

Desai told News24 through his spokesperson, Professor Usuf Chikte, that he was “unapologetic in his stance in condemnation of apartheid Israel” and accused the SAZF of employing “hasbara [propaganda] tactics in its retaliatory and vindictive attacks” on him.