"The president congratulated the judges on their appointments and wished them well in their new roles," said a statement issued by the presidency's office on Thursday.
According to the statement, Zuma has appointed the judges as follows:
- Judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal: Madam Justice Halima Khanam Saldulker and Justice Nigel Paul Willis.
- Justice Aubrey Phago Ledwaba as deputy judge president of the North and South Gauteng High Courts.
- Advocate Gregory Charles Wright as a judge of the North and South Gauteng High Courts, Johannesburg.
- Wendy Hughes as a judge of the North and South Gauteng High Courts, Pretoria.
- Nomsa Victoria Khumalo as a judge of the North and South Gauteng High Courts, Pretoria.
- Brian Amos Mashile as judge of the North and South Gauteng High Courts, Johannesburg.
- Daisy Sekao Molefe as a judge of the North and South Gauteng High Courts, Pretoria.
- Leonie Windell as a judge of the North and South Gauteng High Courts, Johannesburg.
"President Zuma has also, in terms of section 36(2) and (3) read with section 39 of the Competition Act, 1998 (Act 89 of 1998), and on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission, appointed Justice Dennis Martin Davis, a judge of the Western Cape High Court, Cape Town, as judge president of the Competition Appeal Court, for a period of five years," said the presidency.
All the appointments to the oversight body are with effect from July 1 2013.
Bias against white males
The appointments come a month after Judicial Service Commission (JSC) member Izak Smuts resigned after controversy over his leaked report on transformation. The JSC provides the president with a list of recommended appointees.
Smuts was given a "torrid" ride at a closed sitting of the commission when the document that he had penned for internal circulation – but which had been leaked to the media in early April – was discussed. In the report, Smuts stated that the commission had a bias against appointing white male candidates and that it only did so in "exceptional circumstances".
Smuts, a representative of the advocates profession on the commission, was appointed to the JSC in 2009 and in a statement to the media later in April, said that he had found the commission's track record during that time "disturbing".
Women make up less than 1%
A recent study also showed that African women make up less than 1% of the senior counsel in the legal profession in South Africa.
Of the 473 senior counsels from whose ranks candidate judges are selected, only nine were black women, the Sunday Times reported on April 21. Of the nine women, only four were African.
Twenty white women were practising as senior counsel in South Africa, the newspaper reported.
A paper prepared by the University of Cape Town's democratic governance and rights unit lashed out at the Judicial Service Commission for the slow pace of gender transformation in the judiciary, it was reported.
The paper said only 28% of judicial officers nationally were women as of October 2012.
The commission's spokesperson Dumisa Ntsebeza told the Sunday Times at the time that government was failing black and female advocates by not giving them enough work to allow them to get experience and be considered for appointment as senior counsel.
"It's a scandal that we should have only four black female silks in this day and age," Ntsebeza was quoted as saying last month.