The Judicial Service Commission will wait for the end of Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata's trial for drunken driving before taking a decision on AgriForum's complaint against him.

"We have postponed until the finalisation of the criminal trial," JSC spokesperson Marumo Moerane told reporters in Cape Town on Thursday.

Moerane said earlier that the ultimate sanction Motata risked was impeachment, which would have to be approved by the National Assembly.

The commission met behind closed doors to mull the complaint as well as the legal challenge by former Constitutional Court judge Johann Kriegler against its decision to dismiss the complaint by judges of that court against Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe.

It decided to fight the application by Kriegler's fledgling Freedom Under Law organisation in the Pretoria High Court.

The Johannesburg Magistrate's Court in September sentenced Motata to a fine of R20 000 or a year in prison for drunken driving but he has filed an application for leave to appeal.

Civil rights initiative AgriForum lodged a complaint of gross racist misconduct against Motata with the JSC in 2008 and asked that he be stripped of his position. The JSC at the time deferred a decision pending the outcome of the case.

The complaint was based on comments the court Motata had made to and about the white owner of the property into which he reversed his car during the incident that led to his conviction.