Capacity: Magistrate
Appointed as Magistrate: Regional Magistrate (2019)
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Black
Date of Birth: February 1975
Qualifications: BJuris (1996) LLB (1997) LLM in Labour Law (In Progress) (University of North-West)
Key Judgments:
- Nair v Petroleum Limited and Others (C92/2024) [2026] ZALCCT 8 (23 January 2026)
- Ekapa Minerals (Pty) Ltd v NUM obo Links (C604/2020) [2025] ZALCCT 127 (2 December 2025)
- South African Police Service v Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council and Others (C434/2023) [2026] ZALCCT 19 (4 February 2026)
- Taioe v Department of Health Free State and Others (C327/2022) [2025] ZALCCT 126 (2 December 2025)
Candidate Biography | Updated September 2026:
Lindiwe Annastacia Gura is a Magistrate based in Cape Town.
Ms Gura has 29 years of experience in the legal field. She served as an Acting Judge of the Labour Court in 2025 and currently serves at the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court.
From the district courtrooms of Cape Town and Khayelitsha to complex employment disputes, Gura has built a career marked by judicial independence, labour law expertise and public service.
Gura completed her formal legal education with BJuris and LLB degrees from the University of North-West in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Gura began her legal career as a candidate attorney in 1998. Her interest in labour law emerged early in her legal training, as reflected in her LLB research on industrial action and the transition from the old labour relations framework to the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995, with a particular focus on labour law. This early academic interest developed into a professional career that has included labour litigation, arbitration and judicial work in the Labour Court.
Over more than two decades on the Bench, Gura served as a magistrate across multiple Western Cape jurisdictions. In these roles, she handled demanding criminal rolls, high-volume bail hearings and complex trials.
Gura lectured at North-West University for 10 years while continuing to practise as an attorney. Her academic work includes several publications in family law, particularly divorce, published through the International Society of Family Law (ISFL) in conference proceedings across four countries, including Beijing, China. She has also contributed to publications and programmes associated with the South African Judicial Education Institute, reflecting her continued engagement with legal education and judicial training.
Notably, her publication on section 158 of the Criminal Procedure Act has been cited in S v Lech, demonstrating the practical relevance of her academic work to judicial decision-making.
Gura has expertise in labour law and labour relations. In recent years, Gura has extended her judicial footprint into specialist employment law as an Acting Judge of the Labour Court. In Nair v Petroleum Limited and Others, Gura demonstrated a careful approach to the Labour Court’s review jurisdiction, emphasising the constitutional reasonableness standard and the need to assess the evidence, applicable workplace rules and appropriateness of the sanction. In this case, she concluded that the finding that the dismissal was procedurally and substantively fair was unassailable and not reviewable.
Gura did not stop there; in Ekapa Minerals (Pty) Ltd v NUM obo Links, she demonstrated judicial restraint in exercising the Labour Court’s review jurisdiction. She did so by emphasising the limited scope of review and held that factual findings supported by the evidence should not readily be interfered with. She found that the commissioner had properly evaluated the evidence and reached a reasonable conclusion, thereby dismissing the review.
Beyond adjudication, Gura has contributed to legal transformation and social development. She serves as a board member of Orchard Africa, a community relief and development organisation, and mentors women law students through the Women Pioneer Programme, in partnership with the South African Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges (SAC-IAWJ), supporting their transition into legal practice.
Gura’s 29-year legal career, labour-law expertise and experience as both a magistrate and Acting Labour Court Judge make her a credible candidate for a permanent Labour Court appointment. However, it remains to be seen whether her two terms of experience at the Labour Court have sufficiently equipped her for a permanent appointment to handle the court’s demanding caseload and backlog.