Bongani Bongo’s day in court had hardly begun before occupants of the political peanut gallery started chirping about Western Cape judge president John Hlophe’s decision to preside over the ANC MP’s corruption trial.

Hlophe, the argument went, could not be trusted to be impartial because he had demonstrated his political bias in 2008 when he allegedly tried to influence Constitutional Court justices to rule in favour of Jacob Zuma.

The Judicial Service Commission finally considered a complaint from the justices at a tribunal in December 2020, and its findings are awaited...