Capacity: Attorney
Admitted as an attorney: 1995
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Black
Date of Birth: December 1961
Qualifications: B.Iuris (UniZulu) LLB (Wits) LLM (Pretoria) LLD (Atlantic International University, USA)
Key judgments:
- BusaMed Healthcare (Pty) Ltd v M du Plessis can der Nest SC NO (Case No: 72746/2019) ZAGPPHC (25 June 2020)
- Land and Agricultural Development Bank of SA v Balaam (Case NO: 76814/2017) ZAGPPHC (26 June 2020)
- Mthiyane v S (A767/2014) [2015] ZAGPPHC 487 (19 June 2015)
- Mkhabela v Xaba and Others (27235/2014) [2016] ZAGPPHC 1123 (1 December 2016)
- Vox Orion (Pty) Ltd v State Information Technology Agency (SOC) Ltd (49425/2013) [2013] ZAGPPHC 444 (6 December 2013)
Candidate Bio:
Mbombela attorney Vusumuzi Ngobe kaNkosi’s nearly 40-year career started as a clerk for the apartheid-era self-governing KaNgwane Government, later becoming an administrative clerk at the Rob Ferreira Hospital while pursuing his studies.
He trained as a candidate attorney at prestigious Pretoria law firm Rooth & Wessels, later becoming a State Attorney and, from 1997, an attorney in private practice at his own firm Ngobe-Nkosi Attorneys Inc.
Ngobe kaNkosi has served as an acting commissioner on the CCMA, a member of various industry bargaining councils, and a commissioner on the Small Claims Court for 15 years. He was also a part-time law tutor at Unisa and the Tshwane University of Technology.
Ngobe kaNkosi holds a BIuris degree from the University of Zululand, an LLB from Wits University, an LLM from the University of Pretoria, a diploma in Finance & Accounting from Unisa, and is currently enrolled for doctoral studies at the non-accredited Atlantic International University in Hawaii, USA .
Ngobe kaNkosi has acted as a judge in the Labour Court, and the Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng High Courts.
April 2022 Interview:
April 2021 Interview:
April 2021 Interview Synopsis:
Running for only 25 minutes, attorney Vusumuzi Ngobe kaNkosi’s interview was relatively short as far as JSC interviews go. That could probably be because there were very few substantive legal issues that the JSC could go over with him.
Ngobe kaNkosi has acted at five different courts over the span of 8 years but had only attached two of his judgments from the High Court to his JSC application form. From this, Ngobe kaNkosi’s candidacy seemed doomed for failure straight from the onset.
However, Labour Court Judge President Basheer Waglay commended Ngobe kaNkosi’s breadth of experience as an attorney, “you have a practise that is the envy of all practitioners” he said but was concerned by the paucity of his written judgments in labour law. “We have gone through all our archives but we have not found any judgments from you”, Waglay said. This was a point which fellow Judge President Dunstan Mlambo also raised as a concern, “I am just concerned about your exposure to labour matters… and that you don’t have any judgments in the labour court.”
Commissiner Lutendo Sigogo asked for an estimation of Ngobe kaNkosi’s written judgments in labour law, which the candidate replied, “not more than five.”
Justice Minister Ronald Lamola put up a valiant effort in trying to rescue Ngobe kaNkosi’s interview by referring to their longstanding relationship as attorneys in Mpumalanga, and the candidate’s doctoral studies but this was too little too late.
Ngobe kaNkosi was not recommended for appointment – which surprised no one.
