Chairperson, I have been requested by the committee to present to you and request you to support the views of the committee in relation to the matter presented to it by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development on the matter that involves Magistrate Masimini.
The Minister presented the report to the committee, where the committee considered two matters. One matter is the provisional suspension of Mr Masimini as a magistrate and the second matter is the matter raised by the commission that Mr Masimini's salary should be withheld.
Mr Masimini was convicted on 24 November 2006 of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, what they call in security areas "assault GBH". He was convicted by the court at Ezibeleni in Queenstown. Based on that, we request this House to support the committee's views, taken on 14 April 2007 in terms of section 13(4A)(c) of the Magistrates Act of 1993.
Power is bestowed on and vested in this House to take a decision in terms of the said Act and the sections that I have quoted. We request you, therefore, to support this decision so that the magistrate can sit at home and know that violence cannot be accepted.
The intention of the committee is to set a precedent and to ensure that people who preside over others must lead by example. They must not be involved in acts that undermine the judiciary, acts that undermine our democracy. When they sit on the Bench, they must be beyond reproach. We must respect their decisions because we know that they lead society by example and because we know that they are role models in our society. In that respect, we request this honourable House to concur with the views of the committee.
Thank you very much.
Debate concluded.