Capacity: Judge
First appointed as judge: October 2010 (Eastern Cape High Court, Mthatha)
Acting appointments: Supreme Court of Appeal (Oct 2022 – Nov 2022)
Gender: Woman
Ethnicity: African
Date of Birth: June 1965
Qualifications: BA (1987), LLB (1990)(UWC), LLM (20030(Cardiff University, UK)
Key judgments:
- Khohliso v State (86/2011, A790/10) [2013] ZAECMHC 36; 2014 (2) SACR 49 (ECM) (12 December 2013)
- Zwelithini Maxwell Zondi v The State(1232/2021) [2022] ZASCA 173 (7 November 2022)
- Jikijela and Another v. Mhlontlo Local Municipal Council and Others (1698/10) [2011] ZAECMHC 7 (9 May 2011)
- Spagni v. The Director of Public Prosecutions, Western Cape and Others (455/2022) [2023] ZASCA 24 (13 March 2023)
Candidate Biography | Updated October 2023
Judge Gloria Nozuko Mjali is a judge of the Eastern Cape High Court, Mthatha.
Born in Mthatha in 1965, after matriculating Mjali pursued a BA (Law) and LLB degrees at the University of the Western Cape (1987 and 1990 respectively). But while completing the latter degree, she also started working as a public prosecutor in the district courts, where she cut her teeth from 1989 to 1991.
Mjali was promoted to state advocate in late 1991, and would spend the next five years prosecuting complex crimes in the Mthatha High Court, notorious for its frighteningly high crime rates relative to its rural town status.
From 1996 – 2003 she served as senior state advocate. She took a break to pursue an LLM at the University of Cardiff in the UK and, upon her return, joined the Special Investigating Unit as a legal representative investigating corruption and maladministration.
From 2008 Mjali was recruited into the still pioneering Aspirant Women Judges programme run by the SA Judicial Education Institute. Led by senior and retired judges, the programme provides intensive skills training for aspirant judges and then places them in acting positions as high court divisions across the country. The programme was designed to boost the number of women who would be ready for permanent judicial appointment. Mjali attended the year-long programme from June 2008 to May 2009, and was given acting appointments at the Northern Cape High Court (July 2009 – May 2010) and the Land Claims Court (Jun to Oct 2010).
Mjali was appointed a permanent judge in October 2010 and placed at the Mthatha High Court.
As a judge Mjali has written several judgments, particularly in criminal law. She wrote the reported judgment in Kholiso v State, in which a traditional healer was arrested in her chemist for being in possession of two vulture’s feet, which she intended to use in making medicines, but in contravention of the Transkei Environmental Conservation Decree (9 of 1992), which only applied to sections of the Eastern Cape that were part of the apartheid Bantustan.
Ms Kholiso, the traditional healer, challenged the constitutional validity of the decree for imposing criminal punishment to people in one part of the Eastern Cape but not in other parts of the same province. After analysing the law, Mjali found that different criminal sanctions amounted to unfair discrimination and were therefore constitutionally invalid. She set aside Ms Kholisa’s sentence and conviction.
Mjali served as an acting judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal for brief stint between October and November 2022. While there, she wrote the judgment in Spagni v National Director of Public Prosecutions, a case in which a local cryptocurrency developer known as ‘Fluffypony’ tech circles faced extradition to the United States on fraud charges. Although he initially consented to the extradition and waived his right to a hearing, he later turned around and challenged the extradition in court on technical grounds, including that he was not legally represented when he consented. All of these were dismissed by the high court.
On appeal to the SCA, he sought to introduce new evidence to bolster his case but by then he had already been extradited to the US. Mjali wrote the unanimous judgment (concurred in by 4 other judges) dismissing Spagni’s case on the grounds of mootness.
No doubt, Mjali has a wide breadth of experience in criminal law and has amassed significant experience as a judge in the High Court. In their letters nominating her for appointment to the Supreme Court of Appeal, both the SA Women Lawyers Association and the Wild Coast Attorneys’ Association commend Mjali’s odd-defying career in the legal profession. However, Mjali’s limited appellate experience and paucity of reported judgments raise serious questions about her readiness for the Supreme Court of Appeal, a court in which she will sit in review of the work of her judicial colleagues and provide guidance on broad areas of the law.
October 2023 Interview:
Judge Gloria Nozuko Mjali’s October 2023 interview for a position on the Supreme Court of Appeal was unsuccessful. She was not nominated for appointment.
