OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 2.00PM.
THE dispute over a new deputy judge president for KwaZulu Natal is likely to flare up again with the nomination of three white candidates and only one black candidate.
The Judicial Services Commission is set to release the nominations list for various positions on the judiciary around the country, including the KZN deputy judge president.
A source close to the commission says two of the four nominations are first-round candidates Judge Willem Booysen and Judge Vuka Tshabalala, who were opposed by a majority of the Natal bench the first time.
A source said outgoing deputy judge president John Broome had nominated three of the four – “who all just happen to be white”. Besides former Broederbond member Booysens, the two other nominations are believed to be judges Brian Galgut and Jan Hugo.
Hugo is best known as the judge who presided over the 1996 murder trial of former defence minister Magnus Malan and nine others. The commission failed at its last meeting in April to choose a new deputy judge president after 14 of the 19 sitting judges, including Galgut and Hugo, petitioned the commission not to appoint “junior” judge Tshabalala. They said that Tshabalala, who was a member of the Natal Bar for 29 years before being appointed a judge of the Ciskei High Court, would not be able to command the respect of the other judges, and that if Booysen were not chosen there were other “far more senior and better qualified” judges available for the job. A source close to the commission said Broome’s nomination of three white judges was in violation of the constitutional obligation to promote diversity in SA society. It was also “highly unusual” for the outgoing incumbent to nominate three candidates.
The judge who was too late 17 April 1998 Malan sweats it out in court as others buckle 28 June 1996