Senior Magistrate's Bigoted Songsheet

Court officer Ashin Singh sows discord among his peers

A Pietermaritzburg magistrate with a shoot-from the hip attitude who was recently charged with threatening a court reporter (see nose227), has told a retired senior magistrate in his circuit to “go to hell”; that her health issues are the result of “karma”; and that “the views of your lesbian friend” should be ignored.

It might just be the last exchange of words between magistrate Ashin Singh and retired senior magistrate Petronella Joubert who stepped down on 30 November in a feud that has run for well over a decade. They have repeatedly complained about each other to superiors and oversight bodies during that time.

But it appears Singh’s attitude to authority and his ability to drag out a fight, is nothing new, – his antics having once reached the ear of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

Joubert is currently involved in a complaint against Singh being heard by the Magistrate’s Commission – a matter that has dragged on since August 2017: Joubert and two other magistrates claim that Singh and the local chief magistrate “intimidated and victimised” them.

The latest exchange of words is the result of an email sent by Joubert on 29 November, a day before retiring, which she sent to all magistrates within the circuit. Her email said that, because she was retiring it was necessary that she “respond to Mr Ashin Singh’s wild and unfounded allegations before I leave”. He had supposedly made the allegations in an email sent to everyone in August 2017. With attachments, Joubert’s email outlined a series of complaints made by Singh against Joubert dating as far back as June 2005.