By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has resolved that Deputy Chief Justice Mandisa Maya is suitable for the position of chief justice after her interview on Tuesday.
With current Chief Justice Raymond Zondo retiring in August after a mandatory 12-year term, president Cyril Ramaphosa has nominated Maya as his successor.
Maya was the only candidate for the job. If Ramaphosa accedes to the recommendation, she will take over from Zondo.
At the relatively tender age of 60, Maya will serve as Chief Justice until 20 March 2034, just five months shy of the full term of 12 years.
Significantly, Maya’s term as Chief Justice will come when the South African judiciary is facing serious challenges and rapid changes.
The top resolution of the judges confeence in December was two demands: that the administration of the courts move from the hands of the minister of justice to the hands of judges themselves and that the magistrates’ courts and the superior courts be unified under a single judicial branch.
Both demands are complex and fraught with political tension between the judiciary and the executive.
The JSC’s sitting this week comes at a poignant moment: celebrating 30 years of democracy, an election fraught with uncertainty and a judiciary at a point of transition.
Speaking during her interview on Tuesday, Maya said the judiciary should inspire confidence in the public’s eye.
She said South Africa has faced a number of challenges and the need for an impartial, independent, effective, accountable, responsive and cohesive judiciary has never been greater.
“If I’m appointed for this position, I know that I will bear the enormous responsibility of ensuring that the institution remains strong,” she said.
She added that the judiciary must ensure that even the most vulnerable in society must be able to access the judiciary.
Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, further asked Maya how she plans to handle the judiciary’s shrinking budget to which she responded that the judiciary must account to Parliament for its budget.
Maya said certain departments should be excluded from budget cuts.
She added that the Chief Justice was not informed of the budget cuts that are now impacting the courts.
Maya said if there had been consultation, the judiciary could have been excluded from the cuts that have in turn damaged court operations.
Maya was born in the Eastern Cape in 1964. She was formerly the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2017 to 2022. Maya joined the bench in May 2000 as a judge of the Transkei of the High Court of South Africa. She was elevated to the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2006.
Maya began her legal career in the Transkei, working as a prosecutor and state law adviser. She was eventually admitted as an advocate in 1994. President Thabo Mbeki appointed her to the Mthatha High Court in May 2000. In June 2006 he appointed her to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
In the appellate court, she was elevated to the deputy presidency in September 2015. She moved to the presidency, succeeding Lex Mpati in both positions in May 2017. Maya was the first black woman to serve in the Supreme Court of Appeal. Maya was also the court’s first woman deputy president and first woman president.
She was nominated unsuccessfully for elevation to the Constitutional Court in 2009 and 2012.
The JSC will also advise President Cyril Ramaphosa that the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) judge and chairperson of the Electoral Court, Justice Dumisani Zondi, was the right candidate to fill the position of Deputy President of the SCA.