A procedural hiccup has delayed the widely expected appointment of Judge Dikgang Moseneke to the Constitutional Court.
It is understood the Democratic Alliance leader, Tony Leon, objected to the manner of consultation from the presidency, saying it amounted to simply being informed of President Thabo Mbeki’s decision.
In terms of the Constitution the president appoints Constitutional Court judges from a list of nominees submitted by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) after consultation with all political parties represented in the National Assembly.
This week Leon declined to comment. A DA spokesperson, Martin Slabbert, said Leon regarded his correspondence with the presidency on this matter as ”personal”.
Presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo also declined to comment.
The JSC confirmed it forwarded the four names of potential appointees, including Judge Lewis Skweyiya and Judge Kathy Satchwell, to the president on October 11.
An announcement on who would fill the Constitutional Court vacancy was initially expected at the end of October.
Judge Moseneke, who returned to the Bench last year as a judge in the Pretoria High Court, recently successfully challenged apartheid laws in terms of which the estates of black South Africans who died without a will were handled in magistrate’s courts. Estates of whites who died without a will were processed by the master of the high court.
That legislation was amended in Parliament a few weeks ago, giving the heirs to an estate not regulated by a will the choice of either going to the master of the high court or the lower courts.
Judge Moseneke was a former deputy president of the Pan Africanist Congress and spent 10 years as a political prisoner on Robben Island. He left politics to become chairperson of the Telkom board and Metropolitan Life and served as CEO of the leading black economic empowerment company New Africa Investment Limited.
Both Judge Moseneke and Judge Skweyiya were nominated by the National Association of Democratic Lawyers.