JSC Interviews Judge Bulelwa Pakati October 2019

Capacity: Judge
First appointed as a judge: 22 May 2012 (Northern Cape Division)
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Black
Date of Birth: March 1961
Qualifications: Dip Juris (1986) B.Juris (1988) LLB (1990) (University of Transkei)

Key Judgments:

Candidate Biography | Updated August 2025:

Judge Bulelwa Pakati is a judge of the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court.

Pakati was permanently appointed to the Northern Cape Bench in 2012 and she has previously spoken about the difficulties and prejudices she faced as a non-Afrikaans-speaker on that Bench. In 2020 she was appointed to the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court. She acted as Deputy Judge President of the Kimberly High Court from 29 January 2018 to 13 April 2018, and as Deputy Judge President of the Mthatha High Court from 22 July 2024 to 20 September 2024.

After graduating from the University of Transkei with her LLB in 1990, Pakati worked as a magistrate from 1991 to 1998, before taking on a lecturing position at Justice College. She subsequently returned to the magistracy after one year in 1999, and served as a senior magistrate from 2002 to 2004 and regional magistrate from 2004 to 2012.

During her judicial career, Pakati has dealt with some of the unspeakably dark and grotesque crimes in a country renowned for the profound violence of such deeds.

In 2011 she heard the matter of S v Litsili. The defendant was charged with the murder and rape of the corpse which he then allegedly robbed — the victim was his 61-year-old mother.

Identifying the “crisp issue” to be determined as “the identity of the perpetrator”, Pakati noted that despite the accused maintaining an alibi at the time of the crime, he was unable to account for the deceased’s blood on his shoes and jeans and a shoe print similar to his on the blood-soaked room floor.

In her judgment, Pakati noted that a “large amount of force was used … The severity of the head injuries sustained by the deceased was to the extent that the deceased could not have survived because of blood found in the airspaces… What is clear is that the accused continued to assault the deceased after her heart had stopped beating. This is evident from the medical evidence … The sexual act was also committed post mortem. The deceased was an elderly woman of 61 years and defenceless.”

Pakati has also had to deal with the messy politics of personality and power within the judiciary.

In October 2017 she had come up against her colleague, Violet Phatshoane, for the vacancy as Deputy Judge President of the division. Then, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) decided to not fill the position after allegations of interference by Northern Cape Judge President Frans Kgomo was revealed during interviews.

Kgomo had written to the commission detailing Pakati’s shortcomings, including that the judge was someone who “can be very moody and aloof” and who has been “shown to make elementary but far-reaching mistakes”.

Pakati said she was “shocked” by Kgomo’s letter and broke down. She later revealed the severe divisions within the Northern Cape court — which, according to her version, appeared to be of Kgomo’s doing — and said she had not previously applied for the job because Kgomo had indicated Phatshoane was his preferred successor.

Pakati and Phatshoane again faced off at the JSC in April 2019, when they both contested the Northern Cape High Court’s Deputy Judge President position. Again, neither of them got the position.

In May 2024, Pakati presided over the matter of NB v AB, wherein the applicant applied for an order declaring certain immovable property owned by the respondent to be executable in terms of Rule 46A of the Uniform Rules of Court. The issue to be determined was whether the applicant made out a case for the order of executability of the immovable property which used to be the common home of the applicant and the first respondent before they divorced in 2016. In ordering that the property be executable, judge Pakati considered the circumstances in which the debt in the matter was incurred; any attempts made by the debtor to pay off the debt; the financial situation of the parties; the amount of the debt; and whether the debtor was employed or had a source of income to pay off the debt. Notably, she stated that the respondent had the financial means to satisfy the judgment debt, had failed to comply with what he had agreed to do, and had frustrated any attempt to execute against his movable property.

Pakati has developed a good record of effective leadership by availing herself for public and transformation duties, including participating as a judicial officer in the penultimate moot court competition finals at Rhodes University in August 2023, and serving as the provincial coordinator of the IAWJ: SA Chapter, Northern Cape from 2012 to 2014, and of the IAWJ: SA Chapter, Eastern Cape from 2022.

Her recent stint as Deputy Judge President of the Mthatha High Court from 22 July 2024 to 20 September 2024 stands her in good stead for the upcoming interviews, however her lack of reported judgments could be a particularly big obstacle.

October 2025 Interview

Interview Synopsis:

Judge Bulelwa Pakati is back before the JSC for her fourth interview, this time for the position of Deputy Judge President of the Eastern Cape. This interview took an hour and forty minutes to complete, rather than the scheduled forty minutes, which is in line with the overall trend of this round of interviews. The interview began with Chief Justice Maya acknowledging her personal history with Judge Pakati, as the two attended university together. The Chief Justice began with a thorough recounting of Judge Pakati’s experience in the judiciary, which spans twenty-one years in the magistracy and thirteen years as a judge. Judge Pakati’s lack of reported judgments and inability to give firm numbers on how many judgments she has written seemed to surprise both the Chief Justice and the Acting Judge President.

The Acting Judge President raised some concerns about Judge Pakati’s record of cases being taken on appeal and gave her a chance to elaborate on a complaint that had been levelled against her by an advocate who appeared to have taken issue with her conduct. Judge Pakati declined to elaborate, insisting that her written response, which the JSC had been furnished with, was sufficient and that she did not feel the need to speak on the matter further. She similarly declined to speak on the reasons for her transfer from the Northern Cape Division, a decision that was supported by the Chief Justice.

The bulk of Judge Pakati’s interview was taken up by discussions on what actionable steps needed to be taken to reform the Mthatha court, which Judge Pakati described as being rife with issues. She made repeated mention of case files being lost, found under mattresses, and in hallways without explanation, though she acknowledged that she herself did not witness these things and that they were merely reported to her. For many of the JSC commissioners, Judge Pakati’s failure to take positive steps to resolve these issues was a matter of grave concern. She was reminded that, as a judge, she is in a position to make changes now and need not wait for a formal appointment to the position of DJP. Judge Pakati told the body that she agreed and would be taking actionable steps to address her concerns going forward.

October 2019 Interview:

October 2019 Interview Synopsis:

Judge Bulelwa Pakati returns to the JSC for the third time in nearly as many years. Whereas in previous years she had been vying for permanent judicial appointment, and later promotion, this time she only seeks a lateral transfer from the Northern Cape to the Eastern Cape (Port Elizabeth). This being the case, the Chief Justice skipped the usual pleasantries and began by asking her to explain the reasons for the move.

Judge Pakati explained that she had been under immense pressure following the grueling interviews she underwent when running for the senior post of Deputy Judge President of the Northern Cape High Court. As a result of this pressure, she added, her health had deteriorated to the point where she became concerned for her family, whom she supports. She further explained that, as a way to deal with these concerns, she requested an acting stint in the Eastern Cape Division, Port Elizabeth – her hometown. Noticing that this had a positive impact on her health, she then decided to apply for a permanent position. In any event, she explained, the Port Elizabeth High Court needs an experienced black woman judge as the last permanent judge was Justice Nambitha Dambuza, before she was elevated to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The JSC is notorious for being ruthless on judges who request lateral transfers across provinces. Some have speculated that the JSC generally frowns upon transfers because some judges apply for vacancies in smaller courts but with the ultimate intention of seeking transfers to larger, city-based courts. In previous interviews, a candidate broke down in tears while explaining the circumstances of seeking the transfer but nevertheless the JSC was unmoved and denied her the transfer position.

Luckily, Judge Pakati’s reasons were accepted and her transfer was approved.

April 2019 Interview:

April 2019 Interview Synopsis:

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) was running about four hours behind schedule by the time Northern Cape High Court Judge Bulelwa Pakati’s interview started at 8.30pm.

This may explain her deliberate, almost somnambulist approach to answering questions. That the interview lasted almost fifty minutes was probably more because of the time it took for Pakati to riffle through her files looking for the relevant documents commissioners were referring her to during questions, and the pace of her responses, than any profoundly substantive engagement.

During an unsuccessful 2017 interview to head the division, Pakati had revealed details of attempted nepotism and favouritism (see profile) involving former Judge President Frans Kgomo and her competitor for the position — then, and again, now — Violet Phatshoane.

Then, Kgomo had written a letter highly critical of Pakati to the JSC and he had done so again for this round — a gnarled, apparently bitter hand from beyond the proverbial grave.

Pakati told the commission that this scandal had not affected the collegiality in the division.

Since her last interview, Pakati had served one term acting as the deputy judge president of the division. However, she admitted that despite asking for work during that time, none had been forthcoming from her judge president.

Asked about being nominated by various attorneys in Kimberley, and whether she felt this may, in the future, cause an indebtedness or an expectation of repayment when she presided in court, Pakati said she did not believe this would happen.

She also pointed out that the lawyers who had nominated her had previously appeared in her court and she had found against them.

Pakati was also quizzed about attempts to bribe her in a diamond smuggling trial and why she had only notified the authorities, including the Office of the Chief Justice, when the second state witness was on the witness stand (four years after the offer of a bribe). Or had not recused herself earlier. Pakati maintained that until that point, she had perceived the offer to bribe as “hearsay”: that it had been relayed to her by a “home boy” who was a policeman — whom she had told she was not interested in receiving any backhander.

Neither she nor Phatshoane were recommended for appointment.

October 2017 Interview:

October 2017 Interview Synopsis:

The apparently Machiavellian hand of former Northern Cape President Judge Frans Kgomo, who retired earlier this year, dominated Judge Bulelwa Pakati’s almost two-hour-long interview.

Kgomo had written to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) — as he had done before the April round of interviews to decide who would succeed him as the head of the court and also fill the deputy judge president position — making extremely critical remarks about Pakati.

Kgomo’s April intervention is believed to have led to the withdrawal of Judge Cecile Williams, a judge with a decade’s worth more experience than her competitor, Judge Violet Phatshoane, who was also in the running for the current vacancy. The commission decided to leave the deputy judge president position vacant at the time.

Kgomo’s letter went into great detail about Pakati’s shortcomings, including that the judge was someone who “can be very moody and aloof” and who has been “shown to make elementary but far-reaching mistakes”.

Pakati said she was “shocked” by Kgomo’s letter and in initially trying to respond to the allegations broke down, needing a few minutes to gather herself.

Later, as commissioners Sifiso Msomi (representing the attorneys’ profession) and member of parliament Julius Malema pushed Pakati on the nature of the letter and the possible motivation behind it, she revealed the severe divisions within the Northern Cape court — which, according to her version, appeared to be of Kgomo’s doing.

Pakati said that she had not applied for the position earlier this year because Kgomo had indicated he “had hunted” Phatshoane. “I did not apply in April because I knew that the JP [Kgomo] said this is the person he wanted, so I knew it was useless,” said Pakati.

Responding to Msomi’s question about whether there was a perception in the Northern Cape judiciary that Phatshoane was “the anointed one”, Pakati said she believed this was the case.

Kgomo had, according to Pakati, called her in April after Phatshoane’s unsuccessful interview for the JP and DJP positions. Pakati told the commission that the retired judge president had told her at the time that “Phatshoane shouldn’t worry, because even if she goes [out], her position will be secured [later]”.

Outside of the messy world of judicial politics, Pakati was asked questions about the “huge challenge” of how she would address gender representation on the Bench (increased acting appointments and mentoring), “tools” to facilitate case-flow management and the speedy delivery of judgments (“pressurising” judges “without” putting pressure on them), her opinion on whether the eleven South African languages should be used as the official language of record in courts (all eleven should be used, but English remains as the official language of record) and whether her experience in leadership positions as a magistrate should be considered as weighty enough for appointment (“yes”).

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