As SA waves goodbye to its outgoing chief justice, Raymond Zondo, it also extends a warm welcome to its first female chief justice and current deputy chief justice, Mandisa Maya. She will take up the leadership role of the judiciary in September.
At a special sitting at the Constitutional Court marking his farewell on Wednesday, Zondo was praised by his colleagues, practitioners and others. However, it provided a key opportunity for SA to reflect on what it needs from a future chief justice and where Zondo’s tenure left gaps we want Maya to fill.
Zondo garnered praise as an intellectual leader who was willing to engage and listen to colleagues. He was able to reconcile and engage with his colleagues on difficult legal issues that shaped the entire country. This quality must not be lost with Maya, who by all accounts appears to be just such a leader, as demonstrated by her tenure at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) as that court’s president.
Zondo played a key role in addressing gender inequality in the judiciary, especially in leadership roles. When he was leader of the labour court, Zondo appointed many female practitioners to acting positions and supported their permanent positions.
Maya herself was the first female president of the SCA. During her time, she instituted a sexual harassment policy at the SCA. Zondo, weeks ago, noted that he had yet to sign off on a similar policy for all courts. We can only hope Maya will finalise this when she takes up office.
All SA courts in general have been criticised for delayed judgments and clogged court rolls.
Problematically, the Constitutional Court during the 2022/23 financial year finalised only 55% of the cases before it. During the previous period, it managed to finalise 70%. Zondo explained when he handed down the report last month why this was the case. The constitution requires the Constitutional Court to have a minimum of eight of its 11 judges sit on every matter, including mere applications to be heard at the court. Zondo has long expressed frustration with this, noting it is part of what delays cases being finalised. He has proposed the constitution be changed to allow for about three judges who can then rotate, which would allow for faster resolution of cases.
However, despite his frustration, he has not managed to engage with relevant role players to obtain a constitutional amendment to address this. It requires a two-thirds majority vote in parliament. It also requires working with the department of justice, which wields perhaps too much control over the judiciary — a complaint Zondo also raised. Zondo indicated he often struggled for years to get meetings with the justice minister to discuss important matters.
Maya must learn from this and be able to work efficiently with the new minister of justice, Thembi Simelane. This is especially so as the department has been criticised, by Zondo himself, as perhaps wielding too much control over the courts. Maya cannot wait for years to have engaging, meaningful meetings with the justice department if she hopes to fix issues facing the courts.
We can only hope that she sees the gaps Zondo left and fixes them to establish and build a better-functioning, efficient judiciary that is highly regarded worldwide.
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