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Judge Katherine Mary Savage

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Judge K M Savage_1055

Capacity: Judge
First appointed as a judge: Western Cape High Court (January 2015)
Further Appointments: Labour Appeal Court (2024)
United Nations Appeal Tribunal (2024)
Gender:  Female
Ethnicity: White
Date of Birth: January 1968
Qualifications: BA (1988), LLB (1991)(UCT), LLM summa cum laude (1997) (Notre Dame, USA)

Key judgments:

 

Candidate Bio | Updated August 2025:

Judge Katharine ‘Kate’ Savage is a judge in the Labour Appeal Court.

Few people can count themselves as the midwives of a new constitutional democracy, but Judge Kate Savage can easily claim that title. At the drafting of South Africa’s new democratic Constitution in 1995, Savage worked in the African National Congress’s Constitutional Commission. She, alongside several experts, drafted key parts of the Constitution, including sections of the Bill of Rights and the preamble to the entire Constitution.

At the time, Savage had recently completed articles of clerkship as a candidate attorney at Chennels Albertyn Attorneys (1992–1994) and worked as deputy director of mediation services at the Western Cape office of the Independent Electoral Commission (1994).

Mediation as a form of dispute resolution practice has played a big part in Savage’s career in later years. After a brief stint as an attorney in the Constitutional Litigation Unit at the Legal Resources Centre (1996–1997), Savage worked full-time as a commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) from 1997 to 2000.

From 2000, she established her own law firm, Katharine Savage Attorneys, and was admitted as a notary public in 2002. In 2004 her firm merged with another labour specialist law firm to form Haffegee Savage Inc, where she stayed on as a partner for four years.

She also worked part-time at the human rights law firm, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, on its education law and services projects.

In 2008, Savage joined ‘Big 5’ law firm Bowman Gilfillan as director in its employment and labour litigation department. Now a senior attorney with a robust practice, Savage then heeded the call of judicial office.

From 2012 Savage returned to Haffegee Roskam Savage as a partner, but in the meantime served nine terms as an acting High Court judge (between October 2012 and December 2014).

On 1 January 2015 Savage was permanently appointed as a judge of the Western Cape High Court.

While primarily a labour law specialist, her love for constitutional law never left her. At the opening of Parliament in February 2015 – an event broadcast live on television, radio and other media – President Jacob Zuma faced a rowdy rebellion from members of the opposition, the Economic Freedom Fighters. The EFF members, in their red overalls, demanded answers about the millions of public money spent upgrading Zuma’s private homestead – and were determined to stop proceedings until they got an answer. As soon as Zuma took to the podium, the EFF chanted “point of order!” while banging their plastic mineworkers’ hats on the parliamentary benches, causing a loud din in the chamber. The Speaker sought to bring the House to order but to no avail. Remarkably, while all of this was going on, the television feed was fixed on the Speaker’s face and not on the dramatic scenes playing out in the chamber. Journalists also couldn’t live-tweet the drama as their cellphones were jammed.

These two incidents became the subject of litigation in Primedia Broadcasting v Speaker, a case that came before a full bench of three judges in the Western Cape High Court. Primedia went to court to declare unconstitutional and invalid the Speaker’s decision to block the television feed from showing what was actually happening, and the ‘signal-jamming’ that prevented journalists from tweeting. The Speaker argued that Parliament was well within its rights to block the broadcast of disorder in the chamber, in line with internal policies, and courts had to respect that. Furthermore, the signal-jamming decision was taken as a security precaution in the face of threats to the President and Deputy President. Two judges of the High Court upheld the Speaker’s decision and dismissed Primedia’s application.

However, Savage wrote the lone dissenting judgment. She found that the Speaker’s decisions to limit broadcast and jam the signal were constitutionally invalid as they violated journalists’ constitutionally protected rights, and key principles such as openness and transparency. She wrote:

“Openness repels the exercise of secret power and ensures accountability to the people. The measures unreasonably limit public access to a visual broadcast of important events involving elected representatives in a manner which requires such information to be obtained only from the print media or, as is increasingly the case, from social media. Given our country’s torrid history of censorship and media restriction, the measures are unreasonable in their impact on openness, accountability, free expression and media freedom.”

On appeal, the Supreme Court of Appeal reversed the High Court’s majority decision and upheld Savage’s minority judgment as correct. However, Savage’s most important contributions as a judge may have come from the labour law domain – her first love.

Through her judgments, Savage has helped stamp out the scourge of sexual harassment in the workplace. Three cases illustrate this point. In Liberty v M, an unfair discrimination claim by an employee who had resigned due to sexual harassment she suffered under her line manager, Savage held that the employer, Liberty, had failed to take reasonable steps to protect employees and was liable to compensate the victim R250 000.

In the Campbell Scientific Africa (Pty) Ltd v Simmers case, an employee was found guilty of sexual harassment and dismissed. He challenged his dismissal as substantively and procedurally unfair. The Labour Court agreed, finding that, although his conduct was inappropriate, it did not amount to sexual harassment. On appeal, Savage reversed the Labour Court’s judgment and found that the conduct complained of was indeed sexual harassment. As such, the employee’s dismissal was both procedurally and substantively fair.

In the NEHAWU v Minister for the Public Service and Administration and Others case in the Labour Appeal Court, Savage displayed a mettle made of steel. As a member of the coram that delivered the judgment, she demonstrated the capacity to make authoritative and principled decisions in complex, high-stakes public sector labour disputes. The court executed a fine balancing act of safeguarding the constitutional right to strike, whilst spelling out its limitations.

Acting in the Supreme Court of Appeal, in the FloTank transport case, Judge Savage showcased both her technical and legal prowess in a majority judgment. She resolved critical uncertainties in the application of cessions in securitatem debiti by reaffirming the importance of party intention and clarifying the legal effects of pledge versus out-and-out cessions. Her ruling provided a robust framework for practitioners, ensuring that security cessions are structured with precision to achieve the desired legal and commercial outcomes, particularly in the context of insolvency.

Barely having a chance to settle into chambers at the High Court, Judge Savage was invited to act in the Labour Appeal Court, serving no fewer than 21 terms there between 2015 and 2023.

Along the way, she added variety with a stint in the Supreme Court of Appeal and three terms in the Competition Appeal Court – because why settle for one appellate bench when you can try several?

In 2023, she followed the well-trodden path of South African judges to the international stage, nominated to serve ad hoc on the United Nations Appeals Tribunal for a seven-year term.

Back home, 2024 saw her firmly in the Labour Appeal Court – proof that “acting” does eventually lead to a permanent role, even in law – while simultaneously holding down the role of Acting Deputy Judge President of the Labour and Labour Appeal Court for all four terms.

Again on the international stage, in October 2024, the UN General Assembly elected her as one of seven judges of the UN Appeals Tribunal for the 2025 term, to serve as its first vice-president. The first term of 2025 saw Savage move to Acting Judge President, before swiftly heading to the Constitutional Court as an Acting Judge for terms three and four.

Currently, Savage is also enrolled for a PhD in Public Law at the University of Cape Town, having previously graduated with BA and LLB degrees from the University of Cape Town in 1988 and 1991 respectively. In 1997 she obtained an LLM summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in the United States.

Savage has several academic publications to her name, including on South Africa’s constitutional negotiations, the release of political prisoners, compensation for victims of crime, and even book chapter contributions to Mixed Legal Systems in Comparative Perspective: Property and Obligations in Scotland and South Africa, published by Oxford University Press. Fittingly, if drafting the Constitution was her opening act, the interview may just reveal her encore. This time, however, she returns to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for a third appearance as a seasoned contender – no stranger to the straight talk of the JSC – now vying alongside other candidates for a coveted seat at the country’s apex court.

 

October 2025 Interview

After deliberations, the JSC will advise President Ramaphosa to consider Judge Katharine Savage as one of the possible two candidates for appointment to the Constitutional Court.

October 2023 Interview

Judge Katharine Savage’s October 2023 interview for a position on the Labour Appeal Court was successful. She was nominated for appointment.