South Africa has new Chief Justice: An introduction to Raymond Zondo
SOUTH African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced the appointment of Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo as the next chief justice of the country’s Constitutional Court.
Zondo is best known for his role as the head of the judicial commission of inquiry into allegations of rampant corruption, fraud and State capture during former President Jacob Zuma’s tenure (May 2009-February 2018. Zuma grudgingly established the commission in January 2018).
The commission’s work will go down in the annals of history as having defined Zondo’s tenacity as a fearless judicial leader. Presiding over the politically-charged inquiry saw him lock horns with the former President, who bizarrely questioned his suitability to lead the commission — after he had appointed him to the position.
The commission tested Zondo’s mettle. It sat over more than 400 days of hearings, featuring more than 300 witnesses. According to the commission, about 1 438 people and entities were implicated by evidence before the commission.
The outcome, in a three-part report, made far-reaching recommendations to rid the country of corruption, and set up an effective anti-corruption framework.
Also notable is Zondo’s handling of Zuma’s contempt of court case before the Constitutional Court. It resulted in the ruling that led to the imprisonment of the former president.
So, who is Zondo?
Zondo was born on March 4, 1960 in Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal province. The young Zondo’s father worked as a labourer in Johannesburg and his mother was a nurse aid. He is the third of nine children. He and his wife Sithembile Zondo have four children. One of them is a cricketer Khayelihle (Khaya) Zondo.
Zondo finished high school at St Mary’s Seminary in Ixopo. He went on to study law at the University of Zululand and today’s University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, earning an LLB. He went on to complete three Master of Law degrees (cum laude) in labour law, commercial law, and patent law at the University of South Africa.
During his training as a lawyer he met with a great loss. His articles of clerkship in Durban under Victoria Mxenge, a human rights lawyer who fought fearlessly against apartheid, had to be ceded after she was assassinated by apartheid government agents in 1985.
He was appointed a judge to the Labour Court in 1997. He then became a judge in the then
Transvaal provincial division of the High Court, now the Gauteng High Court (1999). He was elevated to judge president of the Labour Court in 2000. The judge president’s role is to provide leadership to ensure that judges in the division perform their judicial responsibilities diligently and effectively. Zondo saw another upward movement when he joined the Constitutional Court in 2012, becoming deputy chief justice in 2017.
Zondo’s illustrious career is a tapestry of highlights: from a lawyer to one of the senior judges in the South African Judiciary. He has written more than 200 judgments.
In 1991 and 1992 he served in two committees of the Commission of Inquiry Regarding the Prevention of Public Violence and Intimidation, chaired by Justice Richard J Goldstone. Its mandate was to investigate the causes of political violence and intimidation in which some 20 000 people had died in the decade before the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, and the unbanning of the liberation organisations, paving way for negotiations to end apartheid.
Notably, he was the first chairperson of the governing body of the Commission for the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, whose mandate is to resolve labour disputes speedily and cost-effectively.
In 1994, Zondo was appointed a member of the ministerial task force, tasked with producing a draft labour relations Bill for postapartheid South Africa. It culminated in the Labour Relations Act of 1995.
The General Bar Council has credited him with playing a major part in developing South Africa’s employment law into a respected, coherent and fair system of law.
One of Zondo’s significant judgments was in the case Modise versus Steve’s Spar Blackheath. In this case, the trade union Saccawu demanded that the store and other Spar stores agree to bargain collectively with the union. The store declined.
The majority of the employees who went on strike in November 1994 were found by the Supreme Court to have embarked on an illegal strike. It granted an interim interdict forbidding the strike. The workers were subsequently dismissed.