Umm Muhammed Umar

This past weekend, the Justice Service Commission recommended Mandisa Maya, as the country’s first female Chief Justice. Maya is the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal. Her recommendation followed a week of what has been described by some as ‘distasteful’ interviews with the four candidates:  Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, Judge of the Constitutional Court, Mbuyiseli Madlanga, Judge President of the Gauteng Division of the High Court, Dunston Mlambo, and Maya. Mlambo had had to answer unsubstantiated sexual harassment questions, there was also a screaming match between Justice Minister Ronald Lamola and EFF President, Julius Malema. Researcher at Judges Matter, Mbekezeli Benjamin, spoke to Radio Islam.

Judges Matter is an independent civil society organization that monitors the appointment of judges. It also monitors how judges are disciplined for misconduct as well as the governing system for judges in South Africa.

Benjamin said that Judges Matter was concerned that the JSC has some systematic failures. He said that they had hoped that the JSC would publish a list of criteria that would be used in order to determine who was suitable to be appointed as Chief Justice. He lamented, “That did not happen. And the purpose of the criteria is so that the questions are more guided and focused on the real issues. And as we saw this week, we saw a lot of time being spent on irrelevant issues.” Benjamin added that a lot of time had also been spent on political issues, such as whether judges should be responding to politicians. He added, “there was the issue of sexual harassment allegations that were not really substantiated. So, all of those things are issues that are not capable of assessing whether they are suitable for the job.” He said that those type of questions were simply to make a political statement, and had served no legitimate purpose.

Benjamin said that several commissioners did not respect the purpose of their task, not just the politicians who were present as members of parliament. he expressed concern, as a member of Judges Matter, that the judiciary itself did not have rules that would ensure that people kept focused on the job.

Commenting on whether the JSC had become overly politicized, Benjamin said that this was not the first time matters had been handled in such a manner. He said that in last year, “interviews had to be taken to court after concerns about how they were conducted.” He emphasized, “So it’s not individuals who are who are failing at the job, but it’s the body itself, as it simply is refusing to set up the proper rules and procedures to ensure that they never lose focus in the way that they have.”

According to Benjamin, Julius Malema, in his capacity as a commissioner, was trying to imply that the Minister of Justice had favoured Justice Malambo, because one of the major issues that Malambo had was that he had never acted on the Constitutional Court, and was, there, unfamiliar with it, and would not make a good Chief Justice. Meanwhile, a few months before the interviews, Malambo was appointed as an acting judge. He said that Malema was asking Zondo if it was normal for a person to be appointed as an acting judge on the Constitutional Court so soon before the interviews: was Lamola trying to favour Justice Malambo to enhance his chances of becoming Chief Justice? Lamola denied the accusation, saying that he had recommended Malambo alongside other judges, which then resulted in a screaming match. Benjamin stressed that the incident was entirely unacceptable. He said, “So in terms of the law, that’s the minister was correct in how he went about things, but…. the usual practice is that the Chief Justice and the deputy……try and find the names and they recommend them to the minister.”

Judge Maya has an advantage in that women had previously not had a role in which they held the reigns in the judiciary. Nevertheless, Maya does have credentials that put her at an advantage over the other candidates as well. Ultimately, the decision will be that of the President.