Mail & Guardian Reporter
Former judge Rex van Schalkwyk said this week he is planning to head north to the tranquil chambers of the newly formed Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa. The move should ease the financial blow of leaving the Bench, for Justice Minister Dullah Omar’s refusal to grant him an official discharge means he will forsake his lifelong salary. Judges are paid a full salary after retirement or official discharge.
Despite seeking judicial martyrdom, his move has drawn a largely unsympathetic response from the legal profession. One judge said his reasons for his resignation — such as Omar’s attack on him and the low calibre of new judicial appointments — were simply not good enough, and that judges should only resign over their actual work.
Most lawyers appear to accept the transformation of the Bench means some relatively inexperienced lawyers will have to be appointed at first. But that does not preclude a cynical streak developing, fuelled by rumours such as this: a recently appointed judge, who was one of a three-man appeal Bench, suggested the three divide the trial’s record between them when they went off to make their finding.