Why KZN top judge lost out
THE post of deputy judge president and two judges’ positions in KwaZulu-Natal remain vacant after the Judicial Services Commission failed to nominate any preferred candidates to President Jacob Zuma for appointment, with onlookers suggesting that politics was at play.
The interviews were held in public last week but voting was done in secret.
The Mercury has been told by two independent sources that some members of the ANC contingent left the hearings early – and this left them one vote short to appoint their favourite and third-time runner, Judge Isaac Madondo.
This “lack of a quorum” also scuppered the other two appointments because, with divisions on the JSC, none of the four candidates got a clear majority.
Judge Madondo has always been a provincial ANC favourite but in 2011, he was pipped to the post of judge president by Chiman Patel and, the following year, for the deputy position by Judge Achmat Jappie.
Judge Madondo chose not to put himself forward for the position of judge president earlier this year and Judge Jappie, with no opposition, got the job. He has not had a deputy since then.
In this round, Judge Madondo was up against judges King Ndlovu (who withdrew at the last minute because of illhealth), Gregory Kruger, Shyam Gyanda and the only woman, Kate Pillay.
Observers on social media, who sat in on the interviews, named Judge Madondo as the favourite although some were also impressed by Judge Pillay.
Normal appointments require 12 votes, being the majority of the 23 permanent members.
But judge presidents and premiers are giving a vote for the deputy position, making the required majority 13 votes.
And when the Madondo vote was taken, with some ANC members missing, he received only 12 votes.
There was then complete disagreement over the two remaining positions which were being contested by Regional Court magistrate Sharon Marks, constitutional law expert Prof Karthy Govender, and two advocates, Glenn Thatcher SC, and Piet Bezuidenhout.
JSC spokesman Carel Fourie confirmed that KwaZulu-Natal was the only division where no appointments had been recommended at all.
“Sometimes it happens this way… nothing can be read into it. It is just how it happened.”
He confirmed that no candidates had obtained the required majority and, in the case of the deputy judge president, 13 votes had been needed.
He said the posts would have to be re-advertised “and the same candidates can apply again”, but the JSC would only sit again in April next year. He said Judge Jappie could, in the interim, appoint a person of his choice as an acting deputy.
ANC provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala said while the party would wish appointments to happen quickly to close vacuums, processes needed to be followed.