In a speech delivered in 2008, Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Carole Lewis implicitly questioned the appointment of some black and female judges to the various courts in South Africa since 1994. She argued in a speech that the JSC has become dominated by politicians after the adoption of the final Constitution in 1996 and that [...]
Posts under ‘Judiciary’
Invitation to a Public Lecture by Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo
The Chief Justice of South Africa, the Hon. Mr Justice Sandile Ngcobo, will deliver the first Claude Leon public lecture on the topic:
“The importance of public confidence in the judiciary in South Africa”Date: Thursday 16th September
Time: 17h30
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, Kramer Building, Middle Campus, UCT
Please join us afterwards for drinks and snacks
RSVP: Rene 021 650 [...]
What do we talk about when we talk about “transformation”?
Is it at all possible to write sensibly but critically about the way in which the concept of “transformation” has evolved in kleptocratic South Africa? “Transformation” has become a buzzword that is much bandied about and much abused, but few people explain what they mean when they use the word. Like mother hood and apple [...]
Do as we say, not as we do?
I almost fell off my chair laughing when I read yesterday that the Democratic Alliance has warned that politicising the office of the Public Protector undermined the “brilliant” work it has done. The Cape Times reported that the DA’s defence of Adv Thuli Madonsela comes in the wake of an attack on her by the ANC Youth League [...]
What have Tweedledum and Tweedledee been up to?
Maybe all this goodwill, peace, love and happiness generated by the World Cup in South Africa have finally turned my brian into a mushy pulp. (Miss World contestants must be horrified by the World Cup: with all this love and peace going around they must have nothing left to do but look pretty and sniff [...]
Anti-intellectual South Africa deserves the media it has
Journalist Stephen Groottes has taken exception to my post in which I lamented the generally low quality of reporting about legal matters and about our judiciary, and in which I compared it unfavourably with the reporting of such matters in the USA. This seems like an important issue for the health of our democracy and for [...]
Selebi case: “The dog ate his homework”
The state’s cross-examination of former Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi finally came to an end on Friday. I have been following the cross-examination of Selebi on the Mail & Guardian’s amaBhungane Twitter page: not as good as being in court oneself, but facinating – even riveting – nevertheless.
At the end of the cross-examination it was very clear [...]
Where are all the women judges?
I am not sure whether this is an apocryphal story, but I was told that in the late nineteen nineties a women judge was appointed to one of the High Courts in South Africa. She was the first women judge appointed in that High Court. On her first day at the office, she discovered that the [...]
On judicial appointments
The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) has now announced the names of the most recent successful candidates for appointment to various High Courts and the Labour Court. There has been some criticism of these appointments, most notably because of the non-appointment of Adv Jeremy Gauntlett and – to a lesser extent – Adv Glen Goosen and [...]
What makes a good judge?
It is less than ideal – but perhaps not surprising, given the way lawyers like to gossip - that news of the non-appointment of Adv Jeremy Gauntlett to the Cape High Court bench leaked out before an official announcement was made about the matter. Gauntlett is often described as one of South Africans most brilliant legal [...]
