Staff Reporter.
The Office of the Chief Justice has announced that Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has assumed responsibilities as Acting Chief Justice with effect from yesterday.
The Office said on Friday that the acting capacity of Madam Justice S S V Khampepe as Acting Deputy Chief Justice ended on 30 June 2021.
President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Madam Justice S S V Khampepe as Acting Deputy Chief Justice following the Chief Justice taking a long leave.
As the Chief Justice is still on long leave as made known on 06 May 2021, and by application of the relevant legislation namely section 4 (2) (b) of the Superior Courts Act, 2013, the Deputy Chief Justice will exercise the powers or perform the functions of the Chief Justice as the Acting Chief Justice.
“The work of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector including Organs of State, has now, despite the extension, reached a stage that the Deputy Chief Justice will be in a position to fulfil his responsibilities as Acting Chief Justice while attending to the finalisation of the Commission’s work,” the Office of the Chief Justice said in a statement.
In terms of Regulation 8 of the Judges Remuneration and Conditions of Employment Act, Judges leave is not cumulative and therefore had the Chief Justice not taken his leave it would have been forfeited as it has happened on previous occasions.
Zondo assumed the new role on Thursday.
Khampepe leaves the acting chief justice seat after delivering one of the most important Constitutional Court judgments in the court’s history.
On Tuesday she delivered the judgment that ordered the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma for contempt of court. This was after he had snubbed the inquiry chaired by Zondo‚ accusing it and its officials of unfair bias.
Mogoeng’s request for long leave did not indicate an end date‚ but the three-and-a-half-month leave to which he is entitled would end after his retirement date.