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Judge M B (Maletsatsi Betty) Mahalelo

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  • Judge M B (Maletsatsi Betty) Mahalelo

Capacity: Judge
First Appointed as a Judge: January 2018 (Gauteng Division)
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Black
Date of Birth: April 1963
Qualifications: B.Juris (1988) LLB (2000)(University of Bophuthatswana (now NWU))

Key Judgments:

Candidate Bio | Updated September 2026:

Judge Maletsatsi Betty Mahalelo is a Judge of the Gauteng Division of the High Court, Johannesburg.

Judge Mahalelo’s career in the law has taken her from the interpreter’s desk and prosecution floor of a magistrates’ court to judicial leadership in South Africa’s specialist labour courts.

Judge Mahalelo holds BJuris and LLB degrees from the University of Bophuthatswana, now North-West University. She began her career at the Taung Magistrate’s Court, where she served first as an interpreter and later as a public prosecutor between 1988 and April 1991. As a prosecutor, she dealt with criminal prosecutions as well as maintenance and children’s matters, an early introduction to the wide-ranging legal and social issues that would continue to feature throughout her career.

In 1991, Judge Mahalelo was appointed as an Acting District Magistrate at the Mogwase Magistrate’s Court. She was permanently appointed to the magistracy in 1993 and went on to serve in both the district and regional courts. Over more than two decades on the lower-court Bench, she presided over criminal and civil proceedings, as well as maintenance and domestic violence matters.

Between 2011 and 2017, Judge Mahalelo served for a combined 48 weeks as an Acting Judge in both Gauteng Divisions of the High Court. During these acting appointments, she presided over civil and criminal trials, motion court applications, divorces, appeals and reviews. After years of experience across different levels of the judicial system, she was permanently appointed as a Judge in January 2018.

Judge Mahalelo subsequently brought her judicial experience to the specialist labour courts. She served three terms as an Acting Judge of the Labour Court between October 2023 and December 2024. Between February 2025 and May 2026, she served six terms as an Acting Judge of the Labour Appeal Court, and since January 2025, she has also served five terms as Acting Deputy Judge President of the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court. One can say that she has truly gained experience at all levels of the Labour Court benches.

Since October 2023, she has handed down numerous judgments in the Labour Courts. In Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union v Agri Poultry (Pty) Ltd t/a Daybreak Farm, Judge Mahalelo found the dismissal of employees following an unprotected strike substantively unfair because the employer had inconsistently disciplined workers in comparable circumstances. Although the employees succeeded on that ground, she declined to order reinstatement, taking account of their conduct and the serious disruption caused by the strike. She awarded each affected employee compensation equivalent to five months’ salary.

In the Johannesburg High Court, in Central Authority for the Republic of South Africa v Zimba-Schlichtig, Judge Mahalelo ordered the return of two children to Germany under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. She found that Germany was their habitual residence, that their retention in South Africa was unlawful, and that the mother had not established the required grave risk of harm to resist their return. The order included accommodation and therapeutic-support arrangements; it concerned the children’s return to the appropriate jurisdiction, not a final determination of custody.

Beyond deciding cases, Judge Mahalelo has made judicial education and mentorship an important part of her contribution to the legal profession. She has mentored aspirant regional magistrates, law students, pupils and Acting Judges. She has also chaired the Labour Court’s Education Committee Co-ordinated Lunch Time Seminars for Judges of the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court, and she has presented papers at conferences held at UNISA and the Johannesburg Attorneys Association.

She has spearheaded a collaboration with the South African Judicial Education Institute to provide training on the Judiciary’s Sexual Harassment Policy for the Women in Leadership in Law organisation, an initiative reflecting her interest not only in the administration of justice, but also in the institutional culture of the judiciary itself.

Judge Mahalelo is a member of the South African Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges, where she has held various roles and now serves as treasurer. She is also a member of the Judges Association of South Africa and Women in Leadership in Law.

Her institutional service extends beyond the courts. She served as a board member of the Vaal University of Technology in 2018 and is currently a trustee of the Johannesburg High Court Trust.

Judge Mahalelo has remained engaged with the communities served by the justice system. She has addressed schools and community groups on domestic violence and sexual offences and has supported a project led by senior judges in Gauteng through the donation of wheelchairs. Her career reflects a steady commitment to justice in its many forms: in the courtroom, through judicial education and mentorship, and in direct engagement with communities.

Judge Mahalelo returns to the JSC’s spotlight for the October 2026 interviews to vie for the position of second-in-command of the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court.

October 2017 Interview:

 

October 2017 – Interview synopsis

It was handbags at noon — again — for Magistrate Maletsatsi Mahalelo, when she was asked by the Judicial Service Commission whether a problem relating to a law clerk filing an objection to her candidature in April 2017 had been resolved. (See profile above).

Mahalelo said the matter “had been resolved” by Gauteng High Court Judge President Dunstan Mlambo, but refused to go into detail despite urging by various commissioners.

She did admit that she was unaware if the objection had been withdrawn or not.

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng suggested that Mlambo reveal the details of the resolution when the commission met behind closed doors to deliberate at the end of this round of interviews.

When asked by Economic Freedom Fighters member of parliament Julius Malema whether she was a “gender activist or a feminist” Mahalelo stated “I am none of these”. She did concede to Malema that there needed to be a 50/50 gender representation on the Bench “to install confidence and trust in the judiciary”.