By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has concluded its October leg of interviews to fill vacancies in various superior courts across the country.
Two candidates appeared before the Commission on Wednesday to fill one vacancy in the Limpopo Division of the High Court and two candidates were vying for the position of Deputy Judge President of the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court.
Mbombela high court judge Takalani Ratshibvumo has been recommended for the position of deputy judge president of the Mpumalanga division of the high court.
Ratshibvumo application and interview included a presentation on challenges facing the courts in Mpumalanga and issues he wants to address if he gets the position.
These include dealing with insufficient judges at the Middelburg and Mbombela high courts.
Ratshibvumo, who has been acting deputy judge president since October last year, said he decided to align his visions with that of Mpumalanga judge president Segopotje Mphahlele to prioritise service delivery to the people of the province, speedy finalisation of trials and reducing the number of awaiting trial prisoners.
“I was able to establish that she [Mphahlele] wants all reserved judgments to be kept under three months. I had to come up with how no judge in our division will have judgment reserved for more than three months,” he said.
However, the province had insufficient judges as the structure in the division provides for nine permanent judges which include the judge president and the deputy judge president, and two acting judges used from time to time.
Those judges had to take on the hundreds of cases that are enrolled each month at both the Mbombela and Middelburg high courts, said Ratshibvumo.
“In 2023, we had 5,837 [cases] in Mbombela and these enrolments mean 486 cases enrolled per month if you were to give an average. In Middelburg, it [was] 5,257, about 438 cases per month and that is quite a lot.”
By the end of September this year, Mbombela high court sat with 5,095 cases and Middelburg with 5,052.
“We allocate six judges to civil court — three in Mbombela and three in Middelburg. If we talk about only eight judges and exclude the judge president, when six judges are given civil matters, you are left with only two to allocate the work to.”
He said he had an LLB degree and a cum laude LLM degree in international law, plus two IT degrees which have come in useful when training judges and magistrates on conducting research.
Meanwhile regional magistrate Jane Ngobeni managed to secure support for the position in the Limpopo High Court.
If Jane has to be accepted by the President she will become the first female High Court Judge in that court.
The JSC will advise President Cyril Ramaphosa on their recommendations for the vacancies in the High Court.