Western Cape High Court Judge Daniel Thulare has been found guilty of wilful misconduct for staying in a state house long after his lease ended, News24 reported.
The Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC) gave its ruling on Wednesday. It ordered Thulare to leave the property, repay the benefit he received and make a public apology within one month.
“Judge Thulare is plainly in unlawful occupation of the property and has ignored two official notices to vacate the property,” said Justice Steven Majiedt, who led the hearing.
According to News24, Thulare paid R900 a month for the four-bedroom house. Similar homes in the area are listed for between R16 000 and R25 000 a month.
Majiedt said Thulare had no right to the house. It is set aside for the chief magistrate of the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
The lease ended in 2018, but Thulare did not move out. He received at least two notices to leave the property.
He kept living there after he was appointed to the High Court in 2022. News24 earlier reported that the chief justice had reprimanded him over the matter as early as 2020.
Majiedt ordered Thulare to pay back the difference between the market rent and the R900 he paid each month since 2022. He must also pay interest.
“Since 2022, Judge Thulare has received an undue benefit: state housing at taxpayers’ expense. He should compensate the fiscus for that undue benefit,” Majiedt said.
Majiedt also found that Thulare broke Article 4(d) of the Code of Judicial Conduct. This rule stops judges from asking for or accepting special favours from the executive or any interest group.
Thulare told the JCC that state housing was an old benefit for judges. He said the Constitution states that “salaries, allowances and benefits of judges may not be reduced”.
He argued that no rule stopped a judge from living in a state house if one was available. His main defence was that this was a policy issue for the chief justice and the president, not a discipline case.
He also said it was unfair that members of the executive and Parliament got state housing while judges did not.
Majiedt rejected these arguments. He said Thulare’s reply was “unnecessarily prolix and contains many irrelevancies” and that the defences “border on the ludicrous”.
“In this matter, I am of the view that Judge Thulare’s conduct was wilful,” Majiedt said. He called it serious misconduct by a judicial officer with 27 years of service.
MP Nicholas Gotsell, who laid the complaint with the JCC, welcomed the ruling.
“After more than a year of parliamentary questions, correspondence and persistent efforts to secure accountability, this ruling vindicates our determination that nobody, regardless of their position, is above the law,” Gotsell said.
Thulare has presided over gang and corruption cases in the Western Cape. He has cited these cases as a reason to be careful about making his home address public.
When News24 asked for comment, Thulare said he had not yet seen the decision. He said he would need to consider it before responding.
Source: this article is based on reporting by News24. Image: News24. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.