Mampara of the week: Kholeka Bodlani

Why bother with courts and due process when you have a magistrate like Kholeka Bodlani in your judicial armoury?

The hearing into suspended magistrate Kholeka Bodlani is yet to be finalised after four years
The hearing into suspended magistrate Kholeka Bodlani is yet to be finalised after four years (Sandile Ndlovu)

Bench this judicial embarrassment

Why bother with courts and due process when you have a magistrate like Kholeka Bodlani in your judicial armoury? Witnesses? Expertise? Sensitivity? No place for that in Bodlani’s courtroom in Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal.

We’ve highlighted the follies of this judicial liability before, and perhaps wiser counsel will some day relieve her of  responsibilities clearly beyond her mental jurisprudence.

In a rape case, she adduced that an accused couldn’t possibly have done the deed because he is “gay”. “For  a man to carry a lady’s purse, it is just not normal for a man.

The way he styles his hair, it is as if it is that of a female,” she said. What’s more, he does household chores, the telltale sign  that he must be gay.

Time to consign this mampara  to a museum of judicial relics. Post haste.

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