ABOUT JUDGES MATTER
Judges Matter is a research and advocacy project dedicated to enhancing transparency and accountability within South Africa’s judiciary.
Judges Matter conducts rigorous applied research, monitoring, and advocacy to inform evidence-based legal, policy and practice reforms to ensure the judiciary remains independent, effective, and trusted by the public.
Judges Matter’s key areas of focus are on:
- Judicial Appointments: to ensure quality, independent judges and magistrates for our courts.
- Judicial Conduct: to ensure judges remain accountable, ethical, and independent.
- Judicial Governance: to ensure that the judiciary is well-resourced and effectively governed.
Why judges Really do matter
Independent, well-resourced judiciaries are the bedrock of the rule of law, fostering well-functioning societies and spurring economic growth. Judges matter to a prosperous and democratic South Africa, as a strong, independent judiciary is necessary to safeguard constitutional principles, uphold the rule of law, and protect human rights. Strong judiciaries foster economic growth and inspire confidence in the legal system, and judges matter to constitution democracy.
Judges Matter is a project of the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit (DGRU) at the University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Law. The DGRU is Africa’s leading think tank on the judiciary.
Good Judges Make Good Judgments
Throughout the year Judges Matter monitors the judiciary and does research into judicial appointment, conduct and governance processes, and other topics of public interest. This includes monitoring judicial conduct tribunals, researching the appointment process for acting judges, interrogating the criteria the JSC uses to nominate new judges to the bench, examining the governance of the magistracy, investigating statistics regarding the judiciary, writing thought pieces and more.
Yet, for justice to truly serve all, it must be accessible and comprehensible to every citizen. The need for public scrutiny is vital to ensure judicial independence and good governance. Trust in our judiciary is not just a nicety; it’s a fundamental pillar of democracy and social cohesion. Transparency, accountability and efforts to combat corruption and inefficiency are paramount to maintaining this trust.
At Judges Matter, our mission is to bring transparency to South Africa’s judiciary.
At Judges Matter, our mission is to bring transparency to South Africa’s judiciary. Through advocacy, research, and monitoring, we shine a light on crucial issues of judicial appointments, judicial conduct, and judicial governance.
Join us in empowering citizens with knowledge, fostering accountability, and upholding the principles of justice and fairness. Follow us for updates, analysis, and advocacy efforts aimed at strengthening our judiciary. Together, let’s build a South Africa where justice truly serves all.
#JudgesMatter #TransparencyInJustice #SouthAfrica #WhyJudgesMatter #JSCInterviews
Meet the team
Alison Tilley
Alison Tilley is an attorney and the co-ordinator of Judges Matter. She has litigated on access to information and whistle-blowing issues in a number of High Court matters, the Labour Court, and the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court of Appeal. Her publications include “The Right to Know, The Right to Live”, edited by Richard Calland and herself, and she contributes to the Daily Maverick. She works on issues surrounding gender-based violence, and particularly the roll-out of sexual offences courts with the Rape Survivor Justice Campaign.
Zikhona Ndlebe
Zikhona Ndlebe is research lead at Judges Matter. An admitted attorney (with right of audeience in the Superior Courts), Zikhona is a labour law specialist and has practiced at one of Cape Town’s most prestigious law firms. She has represented clients at the CCMA, bargaining councils, the Labour Court, and the Labour Appeal Court. Zikhona holds an LLB degree from the University of the Western Cape, and LLM (Labour Law) from the University of Cape Town (UCT). As a researcher, Zikhona has published with the British Journal of Anglo-American Studies and has numerous analysis articles in major media publications. She regularly comments on issues relating to the judiciary, particular on gender, sexual harassment, and judicial ethics.
Mbekezeli Benjamin
Mbekezeli is a research and advocacy officer at Judges Matter. He holds an LLB law degree from Wits University. Prior to joining Judges Matter in 2020, Mbekezeli worked on litigation, research and advocacy on issues relating to the right to education, the right to housing, and the right to protest for activists. Mbekezeli has written numerous articles and is regularly invited to give expert commentary on the judiciary in South Africa. He was listed in the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans in 2023 and was previously Stanford Law School’s youngest Global Practitioner-in-Residence (Spring Quarter, 2019), where he also guest lectured on the Transitional Justice (2023-2025) and International Exchange (2022, 2025) courses.
Genevieve (Jenna) Maujean
Jenna is Project Manager and researcher at Judges Matter. Jenna holds a BComm (Economics & Law), LLB, and an LLM in Public Law from the University of Cape Town (UCT). In the second semester of her LLM was spent at Radboud University in the Netherlands focusing on international law courses. Jenna’s final dissertation focused on how the JSC impacts the legitimacy of the judiciary through the appointment and accountability processes. Jenna has specific interests in Constitutional Law, Human Rights Advocacy, Social Justice and Environmental Law. She has published legal analysis articles in the press.
The Judges Matter team is also supported by creative digital marketing agency Edge Digital, and veteran photojournalist Oupa Nkosi.
Our donors and supporters
Judges Matter’s work is supported by generous funding from individual donors and philanthropic foundations including the Millennium Trust, the Ford Foundation, and Standard Bank Group’s Expanded Democracy Support Programme. If you would like to lend a hand in keeping our judiciary honest, accountable and effective, please get in touch about you can support Judges Matter’s work.
Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us on email.
Stay up to date on our social media channels – Facebook, LinkedIn and X/Twitter.
A big thank you to our sponsors:
