President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing legal pressure from the Association of Regional Magistrates of Southern Africa (Armsa) to implement a 34% salary increase for magistrates. The court challenge highlights a deepening tension between constitutional obligations to uphold judicial independence and the government’s need to contain South Africa’s ballooning public wage bill, now at R740 billion.

Armsa President, Ian Cox, says, “It sounds terrible, but it must be seen in perspective. The 34% was in fact recommended by the Independent Remuneration Committee, who makes recommendations to President Ramaphosa, regarding our salaries.”

Cox says the recommended huge increase is meant to right the wrongs of the past.

“The reason that they’ve recommended it is because we have been wronged for the past approximately 15 years, where we constantly received salary increases below the inflation rate and the increases have not kept up with the increase in our roles, responsibilities, and workloads in the judiciary as a whole,” he says.