Nine non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are demanding that the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) either publish a commissioners’ code of conduct and eligibility criteria for judicial candidates before the next round of interviews for judges or cease its work until the measures are implemented.
The demands are contained in a letter sent to the JSC on February 22 and signed by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Corruption Watch, Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac), Defend our Democracy Campaign, Freedom Under Law (FUL), the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF), Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
The organisations have given the Chapter 9 institution until March 8 to agree to their demands, noting that the next series of interviews for judges — including two vacancies in the Constitutional Court — are set for early April.
“We ask that this undertaking be provided to us by no later than 8 March. In so doing the JSC will provide critical reassurance to the public,” the letter reads.
The NGOs say the JSC’s recent interviews for the position of chief justice had left the public and those concerned with the administration of justice “disturbed”, and had raised doubts whether the process complied with the legal principles of fairness and justice.
The JSC is a body of commissioners that includes judges, lawyers, politicians and legal scholars. According to the JSC Act, its responsibilities include interviewing and recommending judicial candidates and disciplining errant judges.
“Far from assisting and protecting the courts to ensure their independence, impartiality, dignity, accessibility and effectiveness, as the JSC is constitutionally enjoined to do, these most recent interviews can only have diminished public confidence in the administration of justice,” the letter reads.
The NGOs also noted that poorly managed interviews for, among others, Constitutional Court justices in April 2021 had prompted Casac to seek to have them ruled unconstitutional and be held anew. An out-of-court agreement was later reached to conduct fresh interviews.
Besides a code of conduct for JSC commissioners and the chair, the NGOs also want explicit criteria on what makes a candidate “appropriately qualified” and “fit and proper” for judicial appointment, and that these criteria be published.
“These criteria need to reflect engagement with the constitutional imperative that the judiciary reflect broadly the racial and gender composition of SA within the wider context of securing a transformed, diverse and representative judiciary,” they said in the letter.
In the recent interviews for chief justice, candidates fielded sexist questions and were subjected to rumour-mongering.
The JSC has subsequently recommended that President Cyril Ramaphosa appoint Mandisa Maya, the Supreme Court of Appeal head justice, as chief justice. Ramaphosa, who has the constitutional prerogative to choose the judge he prefers, is still to make an announcement in this regard.
The JSC had also interviewed justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, who serves on the Constitutional Court, Gauteng judge president Dunstan Mlambo, and acting chief justice Raymond Zondo for the role, which has been formally vacant since Mogoeng Mogoeng’s retirement in October.
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