The JSC Interviews April 2025: A small but significant affair

On 1 April 2025, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) will meet at the CSIR Convention Centre in Pretoria to interview aspirant judges for vacancies at the Electoral Court and the Labour Court. Judges Matter has made submissions to the JSC drawing attention to concerns about the JSC’s judicial appointment and judicial discipline functions. (Read the full submission here.)

Filling posts at the Electoral Court and Labour Court

The ailing Electoral Court had to navigate the highly contested 2024 elections with only two permanent judges out of five judges and other members, which placed enormous strain on the court (as Judges Matter pointed out at the time). The JSC is therefore under pressure to fill vacancies ahead of the 2026 local government elections.

Johannesburg High Court Judge Leicester Adams, the sole candidate for the upcoming interview, was acting judge at the Electoral Court at the time. He recently wrote the judgment dismissing African Transformation Movement’s challenge to the 2024 national elections. He has previously been interviewed by the JSC but not appointed. This will be his third attempt at the job.

The Labour Court is also under severe strain because of large case backlogs and too few judges (only 13 to serve all 62 million South Africans).  Several vacancies have arisen due to retirements and promotions of some senior judges. On Tuesday, the JSC will need to fill two vacancies in Johannesburg and one in the Cape Town node of the Labour Court.

Luckily, the JSC is spoilt for choice: there are four candidates with an average of 20 years’ labour experience between them. Three of them are women, one is a man.

JSC’s non-advertising of fully funded posts

However, there are several vacancies that the JSC will not be filling, despite these being fully funded judicial posts. This is a concern Judges Matter also raises with the JSC in its latest DGRU submission ahead of the interviews on 1 April. (Read the full submission here.)

There are two vacancies on the Competition Appeal Court – a vital court whose judgments affect multibillion-rand merger and investment transactions – which arose due to retirements and promotions. While several judges of the High Court have acted on the specialist court in the last year, none put their hands up when the JSC advertised the vacancies, which is surprising. We can only speculate that none felt ready to serve permanently on the court.

The JSC must proactively monitor the personnel shifts of judges across the judiciary, including monitoring new appointments, retirements, and promotions.

This again highlights a proposal Judges Matter has made repeatedly in its submissions to the JSC: that the JSC must play a strategic ‘Human Resources function’ in relation to the Judiciary. The JSC must proactively monitor the personnel shifts of judges across the judiciary, including monitoring new appointments, retirements, and promotions. This is to ensure that there is a steady pipeline of talented judges who have the skills and capabilities to serve on specialist and appellate courts, and in specialised fields of law in the high courts.

The JSC did not advertise several vacancies that already existed by the end of the last JSC interview session in October 2024, including at the Constitutional Court and the high courts in Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, and Gauteng.  This is probably out of the JSC’s fear that there would not be suitable candidates who apply. This is worrying, considering the vast number of skilled advocates and attorneys who regularly serve as acting judges.

The JSC needs to work harder to remove the negative image it has within the legal community, particularly in how it conducts its public interviews and private deliberations.

A code of conduct for commissioners

The JSC needs to work harder to remove the negative image it has within the legal community, particularly in how it conducts its public interviews and private deliberations. A stubborn perception is that the JSC’s processes are irrational and unfair, and subject to political whims and misbehaviour by commissioners.

To its credit, since 2022, the JSC has worked to improve its image through, for example, adopting rigorous criteria to guide how it conducts its interviews. However, it needs to work harder at holding commissioners to account. Judges Matter has proposed that the JSC adopt a Code of Conduct for Commissioners. Based on comparative research of countries with similar judicial appointment commissions such as Kenya, Mexico, Serbia and North Macedonia, Judges Matter proposes a set of guidelines to regulate commissioners’ behaviour, including an enforcement mechanism.

Increasing the number of judicial posts nationwide

On the sidelines of the JSC, Minister of Justice Mamoloko Kubayi is expected to give an update on the Moseneke Committee’s recommendations on the final judicial establishment (i.e. the number of judges posts needed) at the various High Court divisions in the nine provinces. Since 2021, the Moseneke Committee has conducted a detailed study to ‘rationalise’ the High Court, through redrawing some jurisdictional lines and increasing the judicial establishment. This issue is particularly urgent in the face of the crisis of court backlogs due to no increase in the number of judges since 2008. The earliest trial dates in the Gauteng High Court are only being issued in 2031!

The JSC, judicial discipline and impeachment

On Wednesday, 2 April, the JSC is scheduled to meet to final decisions on two major cases involving judicial discipline. The first case involves Gauteng High Court Judge Nana Makhubele, who was found guilty by a Judicial Conduct Tribunal of gross misconduct for holding dual positions of a judge and board chairperson of state rail agency PRASA, which is prohibited by law. Additionally, she was found guilty of judicial misconduct for improper interference with PRASA’s operations, including stifling efforts to resist state capture and corruption. If the ‘small’ JSC (sitting without MPs) confirms these findings, they are likely to also recommend that Parliament remove Makhubele from office through impeachment.

The JSC will also have to decide on whether it endorses the Judicial Conduct Committee’s recommendation that retired Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng face a Judicial Conduct Tribunal on allegations made by impeached former judge John Hlophe, who accuses Mogoeng of improperly meeting with and urging Western Cape Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath to file a misconduct complaint against Hlophe. If the JSC endorses the recommendation, Mogoeng will be the first Chief Justice to face an impeachment inquiry.

In its submission, Judges Matter draws attention to the slow pace of judicial misconduct proceedings against judges, and how the JSC needs to streamline and properly resource the judicial misconduct system.

In its submission, Judges Matter draws attention to the slow pace of judicial misconduct proceedings against judges, and how the JSC needs to streamline and properly resource the judicial misconduct system. The first step would be amending the JSC Act to increase the size of the Judicial Conduct Committee and its secretariat. A bill on this issue is currently before Parliament, and Minister Kubayi is also expected to update the JSC on it.

Read the full DGRU submission here

Judges Matter will be following the JSC interviews closely and will give regular updates.

For more follow @WhyJudgesMatter on Twitter/X and on www.judgesmatter.co.za

Learn more about April 2025 candidates