From next year judges will be expected to disclose all their financial interests — as politicians are required to do.
The Judicial Service Commission Amendment Act includes a provision for the minister of justice and constitutional development, in consultation with the chief justice, to appoint a senior official who will serve as a ‘Registrar of Judges’ Registrable Interestsâ€.
‘The Registrar must open and keep a register, called the Register of Judges’ Registrable Interests,†says the Act. The senior official and the register itself will both be located within the chief justice’s office.
Minister of Justice Jeff Radebe indicated in an answer to a parliamentary question last month that he will advise President Jacob Zuma that the new law should take effect from March 1 next year.
The law also introduces measures for the handling of complaints against judges. All judges, including those who have retired or been discharged, will be compelled to disclose all their ‘registrable interestsâ€, including those of their immediate families, and the register of these interests will be updated annually.
What these registrable interests are will be decided by Radebe in consultation with Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, whom the legislation will empower to formulate regulations on the management of the register.
The register will include ‘a confidential and a public part†— but it is not clear why some disclosures will have to be kept secret.
The law provides that Radebe, in consultation with Ngcobo, will determine a ‘procedure for providing access to, and maintaining confidentiality of, the confidential part of the registerâ€.
The public can lodge complaints against judges who fail to make a disclosure ‘within the prescribed time†and the ‘disclosure of false or misleading information by any judgeâ€, the Act says.
The justice minister’s regulations ‘may determine different criteria for judges in active service and judges who had been discharged from active service or judges in an acting capacityâ€, according to the Act.
Judges code of conduct
South Africa has, since 2000, participated in United Nations measures to formulate a code against which the conduct of judicial officers can be measured.
Justice Pius Langa, then deputy president of the Constitutional Court, attended the first meeting of the UN’s Judicial Group on Strengthening Judicial Integrity, held in April 2000.
The group requested that a report be prepared analysing codes of judicial conduct in several jurisdictions across the world.
In 2002 the group formulated the ‘Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conductâ€, which were agreed to at a meeting in The Hague.
The principles ‘are intended to establish standards for ethical conduct of judges†and specify defining values of these standards — independence, impartiality, integrity, propriety, equality, competence and diligence.
‘As a subject of constant public scrutiny,†the principles state, ‘a judge must accept personal restrictions that might be viewed as burdensome by the ordinary citizen and must do so freely and willingly.â€
Judges ‘shall neither ask for, nor accept, any gift, bequest, loan or favour†in relation to their judicial duties; and they are expected to be fully informed about their own and their families’ financial interests. — M&G reporter