Prospective candidates state their cases for ConCourt judge post – SABC News
Candidates vying for two vacancies within the Constitutional Court appeared before the Judicial Services Commission in Sandton today.
The JSC interviews to fill the positions in the court are expected to take place over a two-day period.
About seven candidates will be interrogated for the vacancies.
The first candidate to be interviewed, Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Justice Nambitha Dambuza, emphasised the importance of giving all South Africans access to justice.
“I think in the areas that I am involved in, I would say the rules are the engine room. They are the engine room of the judiciary. They direct how courts work. The procedures that we determine there have a wide impact on access to justice, and I think that’s where we can focus. How we allow people to come to our courts is at the heart of access to justice,” said Dambuza.
Practicing advocate and member of the Johannesburg Bar, Advocate Alan Dodson, has endorsed a statement that judges must always comply with the law in their extra-judicial conduct outside their official duties.
Dodson’s comments come as Chief Justice Mandisa Maya introduced the judiciary’s first sexual harassment policy in August this year.
“The starting point is the victim … no person, no person should be the victim of sexual harassment in any circumstances at court or away from the court by a judge. So, I have no hesitation in endorsing that and from the point of view also secondarily to the victim’s rights, and the reputation of the judiciary. The reputation of the judiciary is done irreparable harm if someone had to be involved in sexual harassment even away from the court as it were.”
Supreme Court of Appeal Judge, Glenn Goosen, said while he acknowledges that there is limited intervention that judges can make pertaining to issues of transformation in the courts, there is a need for them to intervene in the matter.
Meanwhile, lecturer and academic, Dr Chosi Malepe, has assured the JSC panel that she will deliver judgments on time should she be appointed as a judge in the court.
Dr Malepe is the only academic being interviewed to serve in the highest court in the land.
The lecturer has not penned any judgments as opposed to her counterparts. However, she says that she is up for the task at hand.
“The other thing that I almost forgot to mention is the fact that when I was still practicing as an advocate, I would prepare heads of arguments for the judges. And I would make sure that clients are well represented in terms of what I do in court or how I present the cases in court. So, I am very efficient and I’m result-driven.”