As the arrest of high court judge Portia Phahlane rocked the country this week, claims have emerged that she received her first bribe seven months before she was even allocated the case in question the legal battle over succession within the International Pentecostal Holiness Church.
The timing has raised questions as to how Phahlane and the man charged with bribing her, church leader Mike Sandlana knew she would be given the case.
Phahlane said in her judgment on an application for her recusal during the IPHC succession litigation that it had been assigned to her by the deputy judge president of this division, Aubrey Ledwaba. However, two independent sources who work in the Gauteng division said that, in practice, court administrators can also be involved in the allocation of cases to judges without the knowledge of the deputy judge president. At this stage it remains unclear how the case ended up being assigned to Phahlane.