THE DA has welcomes the decision by the Judicial Service Commission to redo interviews for the Constitutional Court judges after the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac) successfully challenged the JSC interview process and reached an agreement that has been submitted to the High Court to be made an order of the court.
This comes after the executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, Lawson Naidoo, said the JSC had agreed to set aside its recommended list of candidates for Constitutional Court justices and redo all the interviews.
Almost all the nominees for vacancies at the Constitutional Court will be re-interviewed.
The last interview session of the nominees was criticised by CASAC which felt the panel went beyond questions the nominees should be expected to answer.
The candidates recommended to President Cyril Ramaphosa were judges Fayeeza Kathree-Setiloane, Jody Kollapen, Rammaka Mathopo, Mahube Molemela and Bashier Vally.
Casac challenged the JSC interview process after it came to light that only the five shortlisted candidates recommended by the JSC Chairperson, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, were deliberated on.
The Judicial Service Commission’s shortlisting of Constitutional Court justices – during which JSC commissioner, Julius Malema, attacked Judge Dhaya Pillay for her friendship with Pravin Gordhan – was also challenged in court.
CASAC filed papers at the Johannesburg High Court, in which it challenges the constitutionality of those interviews, which saw Chief Justice actively politicising Pillay’s interview – after Malema accused her of being an “activist judge”, and said she was “unfit for office” because of her friendship with Gordhan.
The DA said in order for the new interview process to be as fair and objective as possible, the party said it was of the view that a new chairperson of the JSC must be appointed for these interviews.
DA’s advocate Glynnis Breytenbach said the DA also intended revisiting the entire process of appointments to the Bench, with a view to making recommendations to strengthen and improve the process, and also to revisit the roles of politicians on the JSC, who must be able to remove their political hats during this process.
“For worthy candidates to be rejected for political reasons smacks of politicians trying to capture the judiciary for their own nefarious reasons. The judiciary must only ever serve the Constitution and the law and must remain above political agendas,” said Breytenbach.
“The country has already suffered immeasurable damage due to the ANC government’s policy of cadre deployment. The admission by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Zondo Commission that the ANC makes recommendations regarding appointments to the Bench, and then deploys its members to the JSC to ensure that those recommendations are followed through, is a matter that should concern all South Africans deeply. The judiciary must be protected against this devastating policy at all cost, and one way to do so would be the removal of politicians from the interview process.”
On June 4, the JSC published notices in the media calling for nominations of interested persons to fill vacancies in the various Superior Courts. The closing date for submission of nominations was set for July 5.
Following the court challenge, on August 11, the screening committee of the JSC met and compiled a shortlist of candidates to be interviewed at its October sitting scheduled for October 4 to 8.
SA Boycotts, Divestments and Sanction also tried to get Judge David Unterhalter rejected because of his association with the SA Jewish Board of Deputies.
He also gets another interview.
“The country has already suffered immeasurable damage due to the ANC government’s policy of cadre deployment,” said Breytenbach.
“The admission by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Zondo Commission that the ANC makes recommendations regarding appointments to the Bench, and then deploys its members to the JSC to ensure that those recommendations are followed through, is a matter that should concern all South Africans deeply.”
- Inside Politics
