The question of skewed briefing patterns
The Judge President of the Western Cape asked a number of questions in the October 2017 hearings of the JSC. These questions went to what are called the skewed briefing patterns that exist, generally referring to how members of the advocates’ profession obtain work from attorneys. He asked Mr Papier: The issue Mr Papier, of […]
The Legitimacy of the SA Judiciary in 2018
This article was written by Paul Hoffman SC and was originally published in the Daily Maverick on 13 August 2018. Daily Maverick columnist, Stephen Grootes, has cast aspersions on the legitimacy of the judiciary in a recent wide-ranging piece of political analysis. It is important to interrogate the legitimacy of the judiciary carefully as it […]
The Hlophe Papers
Last week Paul Hoffman SC, the Director and Head of Projects at The Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa (IFAISA), wrote an opinion piece for Daily Maverick titled; The Justice John Hlophe Inquiry Papers: Going nowhere fast. This piece was originally written by Hoffman in 2008 but in light of the ongoing allegations surrounding Judge […]
Why the JSC’s no acting, no appointment policy could lead to bad appointments
Whenever there are vacancies in the judiciary, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) advertises those vacancies, receives nominations, shortlists candidates, and public interviews are conducted to select candidates who are then recommended for appointment by the President. In order to qualify for appointment as a judge, one must be appropriately qualified and must be considered to […]
Searching for ConCourt candidates
The Constitutional Court currently has two vacancies open. These vacancies have not been advertised in the call for nominations for the JSC’s October 2018 interviews. This has surprised many people, as the vacancies have stood open since June 2016 and January 2018 respectively – so it is not as if these have only suddenly become […]
Using Stalingrad tactics to delay justice
What role can judges play in preventing the Stalingrad legal strategy of criminals bent on manipulating the system? To begin let us define what we mean by a Stalingrad strategy: This is a strategy of wearing down the plaintiff by tenaciously fighting anything the plaintiff presents by whatever means possible and appealing every ruling favourable […]
The JSC’s uneven line of questioning on judicial transformation
Section 174 (2) of the Constitution of South Africa, which may be referred to as the “transformation clause” stipulates that the need for the judiciary to “reflect broadly the racial and gender composition of South Africa must be considered” when judges are appointed. The contentious nature of the provision was captured in a question that […]
Lamenting long judgments
Chief Justice Mogoeng occasionally laments the long, and what I understand as exhausting to peruse, judgments prepared by our Courts. I would like to suggest a focus on the length of judgments rather than their substance would be to risk a poorer justice being delivered to litigants and society as a whole. Of course, you […]
Examining the JSC deliberations process
In a ground-breaking decision on 25 April 2018, the Constitutional Court ordered the release of the records of a deliberation of the JSC in October 2012, during which the JSC took a decision to advise the President to appoint certain candidates as judges of the Western Cape Division of the High Court, and not to […]
What Judge Motata did wrong
What did Judge Motata actually do wrong? The Judicial Tribunal, lead by Judge President Jappie, enquiring into the complaint laid against Judge Motata has resulted in an extremely serious finding. It finds that sec 177(1)(a) of the Constitution should be invoked, which, if done, would result in the Judge being impeached. What did Judge Motata […]