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Influence: Several political parties have voiced concern about overreach and lack of accountability in the judiciary. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy/M&G

JSC struggles to recommend Concourt candidate amid workflow, jurisdiction challenges

The Judicial Service Commission could not find the requisite four candidates after interviews notable for the justice minister’s eagerness to merge the court with the supreme…

The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) have called for members of the judiciary to undergo lifestyle audits.

Concourt candidates pressed on solution to its backlog problem

None of the four candidates for a vacancy at the apex court were in favour of merging it with the supreme court of appeal

The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) have called for members of the judiciary to undergo lifestyle audits.

Preview: JSC to hold hearings with candidates for key judicial posts

During the hearings from Monday to Wednesday, the Judicial Service Commission will be hoping to fill the last remaining vacancy on the constitutional court

Justice Mahube Mamillae. Photo by OJ Koloti/Gallo Images

The trouble with the JSC and the Concourt

With only three candidates shortlisted, the JSC will again not be able to fill a vacancy that arose at the constitutional court in late 2021

Western Cape high court judge Owen Rogers. (Office of the Chief Justice)

Owen Rogers appointed to the constitutional court

The well-respected Western Cape high court judge was named after the April interviews where the JSC overlooked David Unterhalter a third time

JSC says Unterhalter was excluded by majority vote

His third unsuccessful candidacy raises the spectre of a legal review and case law dictates that the JSC can be compelled to give reasons for failing to appoint a qualified…

David Unterhalter. (WIPO/ Pierre Albouy)

Unterhalter overlooked by the JSC for a third time

The esteemed jurist had to apologise for failing to recuse himself on an application for leave to appeal to the constitutional court, sinking his hopes of a permanent position at…

Zondo keeps JSC interviews decorous after reiterating old criteria

In interviews with candidates for the constitutional court, issues of race, gender and transformation featured but did not crowd out questions on points of law

Zondo: JSC has a duty to consider white judges for constitutional court

The acting chief justice suggested, in his interview with the Judicial Service Commission for the post of chief justice, that the next round of interviews in April with…

Zondo opposes calls to change judicial appointment process

The acting chief justice acknowledged calls for reform after the recent forced rerun of interviews for aspirant apex court judges

Mandatory vaccination involves, at a glance, the constitutional rights to bodily integrity, privacy, to protection against unfair discrimination and to freedom of thought, religion, conscience and opinion. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The uncertain consensus around vaccine mandates

Lawyers agree that the issue is inevitably heading for constitutional challenge, but not all accept the mainstream view that the limitation of rights is justifiable

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. (Judges Matter)

JSC lets politics trump conscience and excellence

The sense that the commissioners who nominated five candidates for appointment to the Constitutional Court voted for their constituencies, rather than with their conscience, is…

In its new report, Freedom Under Law says the caseload of the apex court has tripled, leading to delayed judgments that negatively affect public confidence in the judiciary
 (Renata Larroyd)

Casac demands record of deliberations on ConCourt candidates

The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution again has reservations about how the JSC selected the five names forwarded to the president, after it forced a…

Pop-up vaccination site at the SABC Auckland Park Campus on August 26, 2021 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Gauteng government partnered with SABC to boost to the province’s mass vaccination programme. (Photo by Papi Morake/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Vaccine mandate quandary heading to court, Concourt candidate predicts

Alan Dobson SC says a legislating vaccine mandates would have to be weighed against various constitutional provisions and was likely to see legal challenge