Capacity: Judge
First Appointed as a Judge: January 2015 (Labour Court)
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Coloured
Date of Birth: January 1963
Qualifications: Bachelor of Journalism & Media Studies (1989)(Rhodes University), LLB (1991) LLM (2009)(UKZN)
Key Judgments:
- Minister of Police v M and Others (JR56/14) [2016] ZALCJHB 314; (2017) 38 ILJ 402 (LC) (19 August 2016)
- SATAWU and Another v MEC: Gauteng for Roads & Transport and Others (J1142/15) [2015] ZALCJHB 204; (2015) 36 ILJ 3155 (LC) (15 July 2015)
- Ethekweni Municipality v Nadesan and Others (D 1681-17) [2021] ZALCD 1; [2021] 6 BLLR 598 (LC); (2021) 42 ILJ 1480 (LC) (3 February 2021)
- Kangra Coal Proprietary Limited v Minister of Materials and Energy and Others (J649/21) [2021] ZALCJHB 344; (2021) 42 ILJ 2234 (LC) (5 July 2021)
- Aquatan (Pty) Ltd v Janse Van Vuuren and Another (J838/2017) [2017] ZALCJHB 141; (2017) 38 ILJ 2730 (LC) (4 May 2017)
Candidate Biography | Updated September 2026
Judge Benita Whitcher is a Judge of the Labour Court.
Judge Benita Whitcher’s path to the Labour Court began with journalism. She obtained a Bachelor of Journalism and Media Studies from Rhodes University before completing both her LLB and LLM at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She was subsequently admitted as an attorney of the High Court.
Her early commitment to social justice emerged during her university vacations, when she volunteered as a paralegal at the Association for Rural Advancement. From 1991 to 1993, she served first as a regional and later as the national legal officer of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa. She then completed her articles at the Legal Resources Centre between 1994 and 1996.
Judge Whitcher practised as an attorney specialising in labour and public-interest law from 1996 to 2014. During this period, she worked at Chennells Albertyn and Tanner, and Brett Purdon Attorneys. Her experience placed her at the centre of some of the most challenging questions in workplace law, while her public-interest practice kept the wider social consequences of legal disputes firmly in view.
Judge Whitcher’s career has rarely been confined to a single professional lane. Between 1996 and 2006, she served as a part-time senior commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, and from 2000 to 2011, she held a similar position at the South African Local Government Bargaining Council. She also worked as an Independent Mediation Service of South Africa arbitrator in 1996 and served as an accredited trainer for the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society from 2004 to 2006.
Judge Whitcher first acted as a Judge of the Labour Court in April and May 2012, returning for further acting appointments in January and July 2014. She was permanently appointed to the Labour Court on 1 January 2015. She also served twice as an assessor in the High Court and on numerous occasions in the former Labour Appeal Court.
In her more than a decade on the Bench, Whitcher has handed down numerous judgments. In Minister of Police v M, Judge Whitcher reviewed an arbitration award reinstating a police officer who had been dismissed following serious allegations of sexual abuse. Because the relevant witnesses could not be secured for the arbitration, the employer relied on transcripts of their evidence from the disciplinary hearing, to which the arbitrator attached minimal weight. Whitcher held that the transcripts constituted hearsay evidence of a special type, found that the arbitrator had assessed them unreasonably, and set aside the award before remitting the dispute for a fresh hearing.
In SATAWU and Another v MEC: Gauteng for Roads & Transport and Others, the issue was whether section 197 of the Labour Relations Act applied when Autopax replaced Putco as the operator of eight subsidised bus routes. Judge Whitcher found that although certain components of Putco’s operation passed to Autopax, the major assets, including its buses, and most of the affected employees did not. She concluded that what had transferred was too fragmented to constitute a discrete business transferred as a going concern and dismissed the application without a costs order.
Alongside practice, Judge Whitcher spent more than a decade teaching at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. From 2003 to 2014, she lectured in labour law, the law of evidence and special contracts, while also supervising and tutoring master’s students. Her experience as a practitioner, commissioner and lecturer gave her an unusually rounded view of labour law: how it is argued, how it is decided and how it should be taught.
During her time in academia, Judge Whitcher made a substantial contribution to legal scholarship. She co-authored The Law of Evidence in South Africa: Basic Principles and Trade Unions and the Law in South Africa, and published widely on labour law, evidence, workplace bullying and sexual harassment.
Judge Whitcher has presented regularly at the Annual Labour Law Conference and shared her expertise with judicial, legal and labour-relations bodies, including the South African Judicial Education Institute’s Aspirant Judges Programme. Her career across trade unions, public-interest litigation, academia, dispute resolution and the judiciary gives her a particularly well-rounded understanding of the realities of the workplace and makes her a strong candidate to be elevated to the Labour Appeal Court.