THIS month’s Judicial Service Commission (JSC) interviews recommended six women and 41 men for appointment to the benches of SA’s courts.
For the Gauteng high courts and the Labour Court, there was not a single female candidate.
Sixteen years into democracy and women are still grossly underrepresented on SA’s benches. A s of November , of 216 permanent judges, only 49 were women — less than a quarter.
A frequently heard argument is that the pool of women lawyers is just not large enough.
However, a key obstacle to the appointment of more women as judges is the widespread failure to appoint women as acting judges — a key foot in the door for later permanent appointment, says Jennifer Williams of the Women’s Legal Centre, a legal advocacy body. “It is a huge obstacle ,” Williams says .
Gender transformation is an ongoing headache for the JSC in fulfilling its constitutional mandate to “consider the need for the judiciary to reflect broadly the racial and gender composition” of SA when making appointments.
In October, 89 people were appointed acting judges to the high and labour courts and Supreme Court of Appeal, Department of Justice figures show.
Twelve acting judges were women — about 13%.
While not a strict requirement for recommendation — which all but ensures appointment by the president — candidates who have never acted are perceived to be at a disadvantage.
In terms of the constitution, acting judges are appointed by the justice minister after consulting with the judge-president of the relevant division.
In practice, judges-president and their deputies seek out potential acting judges and then submit a list to the minister for appointment.
Williams says the justice minister and judges-president should work together to produce guidelines to ensure acting appointments are more representative.
The two busiest courts in the country are the North and South Gauteng High Courts in Pretoria and Johannesburg.
As of November in Pretoria, nine out of 38 permanent judges were women. In Johannesburg, six out of 30 permanent judges were women — roughly 22%.
In 2008 and last year , 51 of the 355 acting judges appointed in the Gauteng high courts were women — about 14%.
While race has been the hot potato , gender has often slipped under the public radar . But gender balance has troubled the JSC for some time. In July, former chief justice Pius Langa said that the lack of women judges gave him “sleepless nights”.
rabkinf@bdfm.co.za