Judicial Matters Amendment Bill

JUDGES MATTER MAKES SUBMISSION ON JUDICIAL MATTERS AMENDMENT BILL CURRENTLY BEFORE PARLIAMENT

Judges Matter has made written submissions on the Judicial Matters Amendment Bill 8 of 2025, currently before the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development in the National Assembly in Parliament. The JMAB is called an ‘omnibus bill’ in that it seeks to amend several pieces of legislation through one bill.

Judges Matter’s submission is focused on the amendment to the Judicial Service Commission Act of 1994, particularly section 8, which deals with the composition of the Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC).

The JCC plays a crucial role in adjudicating complaints filed against judges. Currently, the JCC has severe capacity constraints, which make it difficult for it to process complaints speedily. This creates unfairness for both the complainants and the judges implicated in complaints.

The capacity issues are structural but also related to resources. The structural constraints stem from the composition of the JCC. It is currently comprised mainly of permanent judges still in active service, who have to divide their time and attention between their day-to-day duties in court and the onerous work of the JCC.

The resource constraints relate to the staff assigned to the JCC – currently, the JCC shares administrative and research staff with the full Judicial Service Commission. This means that JCC staff are often busy dealing with CVs and interviews on one day, and judicial complaints on the next. That is not sustainable, and it harms both processes. We believe the JCC should be properly capacitated with a full staff complement, as is the global standard.

In this regard, the JMAB will help address some of the structural constraints by increasing the membership of the JCC from the current six members (including the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice) to eight members, with a potential further addition of three members if there are backlogs or when there are urgent complaints.

We therefore support the amendment to the JSC Act as contained in the JMAB, but call on Parliament to do much more to address the resource constraints faced by the Judicial Conduct Committee.

The full submission is available here.