Magistrate Mziwonke Samson Dunywa

Capacity: Regional Court President
Date of Admission/Appointment:
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: African
Date of Birth: April 1962
Qualifications: B. luris (1983) (University of Zululand), LLB (1989) (UNISA), LLM (2007) (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University)

Key Judgments:

• Finecorp Trading 113 CC and Justin Thomas Carelson v Standard Bank of South Africa LTD and Sheriff West, Gqeberha 918/2023 (March 2024)
• A Gotyana &1 v S 6/2023 (January 2025)
• Zwelinzima Runqu v S CA&R31/2021 (April 2024)

Candidate Bio | Updated March 2026:

Mr Mziwonke Samson Dunywa is the Regional Court President of the Eastern Cape Division.

Though Mr Dunywa has his B.luris and LLB, he has never formally practised as an attorney. Instead, Mr Dunywa first appeared as a Magistrate in 1984, five years before the completion of his LLB. It was then that his lifelong career and progression to Regional Court President began. He remained as Magistrate until 1990 before transitioning to Senior Magistrate, a position he held for eight years. In 1998, Mr Dunywa was elevated to Regional Magistrate and remained in this position for over a decade until he was elected to his current position as Regional Court President in 2013, making his way through almost every possible Magisterial position in his 42 years on the bench.

During his time on the bench, Mr Dunywa explored his interest in training and mentored community leaders on how to successfully integrate traditional customary law within the existing common law legal system during the country’s transition period. While working closely with these communities and community leaders, Dunywa recognised that in the less resourced communities, legal entities would not be held liable for unlawful conduct, taking advantage of the limited resources and inconsistent application of the criminal justice system. This realisation motivated Mr Dunywa’s LLM research, which focused on obtaining a deeper understanding of unveiling the corporate veil.

His commitment to producing training and guidance mechanisms continued in his current role as Regional Court President, where he developed performance monitoring tools for regional courts, which is now the preferred option for all regional courts in South Africa. Additionally, he spearheaded the introduction of additional regional court seats in Mqaduli, Elliotdale, Flagstaff, and Bityi, due to these being areas where litigants had to travel long distances to access the courts.

In addition to his position as a Magistrate, Mr Dunywa has twice been appointed to the Magistrate Commission. In 2000 and 2013, he acted as an investigator into disciplinary proceedings of the Kimberly and Kempton Park Chief Magistrate, respectively. He has also served multiple stints as an acting judge in all of the Eastern Cape High Court Division since 2011, with his most recent experience occurring from April 2025 to May 2025 in the Gqeberha High Court.

As acting judge in Mthatha, Mr Dunywa presided over the appeal of S v Zwelinzima Runqu. The appellant’s grounds for appeal are that life imprisonment was not proportionate to the totality of the facts in mitigation, the court erred in finding that life imprisonment was the only suitable sentence, and overemphasised the seriousness of the offence, the interest of society, and the deterrent effect of the sentence. In ruling on the appeal, Mr Dunwya held that the grievous nature of rape of a child is perverse male abuse of power and relied on cases S v JA and S v MDT when evaluating potential mitigating factors like age of the offender and the psychological impact on the victim. Ultimately, Mr Dunywa held that the court did not err in finding that no substantial and compelling circumstances existed to deviate from life imprisonment.

Despite Mr Dunywa spending his entire career in court buildings, it seems that he is comfortable in them but ready to change his title from Magistrate to Judge. With a mostly changed membership of the JSC since his last interview, it will be interesting to see how Mr Dunywa fares.

After deliberations, the Judicial Service Commission decided not to recommend Mr Mziwonke Samson Dunywa for appointment to the Eastern Cape High Court.