Johannesburg - The long-awaited interviews for South Africa’s next Chief Justice are set to begin on Tuesday morning as the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) begins the process of appointing one of four candidates for the top judicial post.
President Cyril Ramaphosa invited the public in September last year to nominate people for the position. The panel set up to short-list candidates – chaired by former head of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay – gave its report to Ramaphosa on November 17, and he submitted four names to the JSC.
The shortlisted four senior judges for the job include Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, Supreme Court of Appeal Judge President Mandisa Maya, Constitutional Court Judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga and Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo.
These four judges would this week appear before a panel of the Judicial Service Commission to be interviewed for the top job. The interviews are set to take place at The Capital on the Park Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg with Constitutional Court Judge Madlanga’s interview scheduled first.
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On Wednesday, SCA Judge President Maya will take the hot seat followed by Judge President Mlambo on Thursday and ACJ Zondo on Friday.
Saturday has been set aside for deliberations which will not be publicised.
The vacancy for the top job came after former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s term ended in October.
Mogoeng had succeeded justice Sandile Ngcobo who had taken over from the late justice Pius Langa.
Langa had taken over the reins of the head of the judiciary from the late justice Arthur Chaskalson.
Zondo has been acting chief justice since early this year when Mogoeng went on long leave before his term ended in October.
The interviews for a new chief justice come at a time when the judiciary has been the victim of intense attack from senior politicians in the ruling party and opposition political parties.
President Ramaphosa and Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu were recently embroiled in a very public tit-for-tat spat over whether Sisulu apologised for her controversial letter on the judiciary.
Sisulu’s opinion piece titled, “Hi Mzansi, have we seen justice?” was published by IOL and was on the receiving end of a number of critics.
In her opinion piece, Sisulu wrote: “Today, in the high echelons of our judicial system are those mentally-colonised Africans who have settled with the world-view and mindset of those who have dispossessed their ancestors.
“They are only too happy to lick the spittle of those who falsely claim superiority.
“The lack of confidence that permeates their rulings against their own speaks very loudly, while others, secure in their agenda, clap behind closed doors.”
While the Presidency insisted she was “admonished” and retracted her sentiments expressed in her opinion piece, Sisulu refuted the claims and accused the President’s media team of being “mischievous” by not truly reflecting the outcomes of her meeting with Ramaphosa.
Political Bureau