Judge Baartman eyes Supreme Court bench
Judge Elizabeth Baartman to interview for SCA position
AFTER nearly 10 years on the Western Cape High Court bench, a Hangberg-born judge has set her sights on the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein.
Elizabeth Baartman is one of two Cape judges shortlisted to fill three positions on the SCA bench.
The Judicial Service Commission confirmed that Judge Baartman and Judge Ashton Schippers, who is Acting Judge on the SCA, would be interviewed in Joburg in April.
Judge Baartman cut her teeth at the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court where she covered civil and criminal matters.
In a one-on-one interview with the Cape Argus, the petite judge, dressed in a black suit, said she applied for the position after being invited to sit on the SCA bench as an acting judge for almost a year.
“The Magistrate’s Court is where I cut my teeth, cold face of it all. Dealing with issues on a basic level…
“At the SCA, issues are more crystallised, very narrow issues and it’s no longer big things thrown in front of you. It’s more about the points of law and the evidence is very focused,” she said.
Judge Baartman has presided over scores of cases, such as the relocation of the Grootkraal Primary School, where the MEC of education failed to follow a court order, and former Judge Willem Heath’s legal dispute with Thabo Mbeki who denied his request to be discharged from the bench.
However, it is her time as director of the People’s Family Law Centre that Judge Baartman was thrown another challenge – domestic and child abuse.
“I remember while I was at the divorce court and a plaintiff came to my office. Her face was in such a state of deformity that I thought she was born that way. As we spoke I asked her about her treatment and that’s when she told me that she wasn’t born that way, she had been assaulted. “I had to take a moment… “More needs to be done about violence in families and couples. It was inhumane what had happened to her,” said Judge Baartman.
The abused woman worked at a police station.
“She was in the public sector, someone must have seen, but no one intervened.”
Apart from family or criminal cases, the judge said she had always been fascinated by civil matters.
In her career at the High Court, Judge Baartman prides herself on the knowledge that only three matters she had presided over have ever gone for review.
“I am well prepared, I read my papers and am passionate about issues. I have a sense of justice and I am not afraid to raise my opinion or check myself. It’s always important to know that you can be wrong,” she said.