The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) on Wednesday called for the immediate implementation of lifestyle audits and the declaration of assets for all members of the judiciary.

The party said it wanted these audits to be urgently conducted with “independence, thoroughness and regularity”.

MKP national spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said South Africa cauld not afford to have a judiciary that was “shielded” from the same transparency expected of other arms of State.

“Judges are not infallible, but human and prone like all of us to error, influence including even bias, whether conscious or otherwise,” he said.

The party argued that if Members of Parliament were required to declare their assets, then the same should apply to judges.

Ndhlela pointed out that the judiciary was not immune to human frailty.

“…hence, MKP will change the Constitution to ensure that we have Parliament Sovereignty to ensure the will of the people prevails, which cannot and should not be reversed by Judges who are not law makers but interpreters of the law passed by Parliament as per the will of the people,” he said.

He said the public deserved to know who funded the “lavish lifestyles” of some judges and how they accumulated their assets. He also questioned how some in the judiciary accumulated “unexplained wealth” on public salaries.

He added that South Africans deserved to know whether judicial decisions were ever influenced by relationships, financial interests or political affiliations, as well as the status of judicial officers' home and vehicle loans, including with whom they banked and their tax status.

The party also wanted judges to declare international trips they had taken in the past five years.

Ndhlela said if judges continued to operate in a “cocoon of untouchability", the rule of law remained at risk.

He explained that accountability must be universal, not selective.

“…let it be clear: this is not an attack on the judiciary, but a defence of democracy and the will of the people. Transparency is not a threat; it is a necessity. The integrity of our courts depends not only on the law, but on public trust and that trust must be earned through openness, not opacity,” he said.