Kameraad Mhambi has been dreading the moment when Jacob Zuma starts to disappoint like his predecessor.
The proposed appointment of Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza SC, Advocate Ismael Semenya SC, Adv Vas Soni SC and Andiswa Ndoni, the current president of the Black Lawyers Association to the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) might be the first such instance.
The JSC is an important body charged with overseeing the appointment of judges in South Africa. Bothe the Mbeki and Zuma camps have tried to cajole and even intimidate the courts during their long political battles. If any side could stack the bench with supportive judges, they would have quite an advantage.
Adv Ntsebenza I know well.
He was my boss at the TRC as head on investigations. The Unit he ran was a shambles, and inspite of us (the TRC) having considerable legal powers – that the police did not have – it was by and large unable to contribute much by way of new information as to political human rights abuses in the previous dispensation.
He also proved to be rather bad at law, illustrated when he tried to defend Judge John Hlophe.
Pierre de Vos sums the proposed new JSE members up quite well:
The new appointments include Advocate Ntsebeza who was fired by Hlophe after Ntsebeza’s rather lackluster performance before the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Hlophe’s case against the judges of the Constitutional Court. Judge Hlophe revealed in an affidavit submitted to the JSC that he had lost confidence in Ntsebeza, who had been his trusted ally since the controversy broke in January last year. Ntsebeza was then accused of “messing up Hlophe’s case”.
Ntsebeza, along with Andiswa Ndoni, the current chairperson of the Black Lawyers Association, are perceived by some to be racial nationalists who might push strongly for the racial transformation of the bench and may frown upon the appointment of progressive white lawyers to the bench. One will have to wait and see whether this perception will be proved wrong or whether the JSC will move sharply to the right, appointing more black but conservative, anti-human rights, lawyers to the bench.
Advocate Vas Soni has also not always demonstrated a keen and abiding belief in the values of openness and transparency underlying our Constitution. As an acting judge he ordered the gagging of the Mail & Guardian, ruling that that Imvume, and its boss Sandi Majali’s right to privacy, dignity and reputation, trumped both freedom of expression and the public’s right to know about the conduct of their elected government.
At the time this ruling was severely criticised for striking completely the wrong balance between the individual rights of a flashy businessman on the one hand and the right to open and transparent government on the other. As it turned out the Mail & Guardian’s story which formed the subject of the gagging order was spot on and the ANC paid back the money that Majali’s company had donated to the ANC after a dodgy deal with Petro-SA. Soni’s judgment was definitely pro-executive. Pro-human rights it was not.
The gentlemen replace Adv George Bizos SC, Adv Kgomotso Moroko SC, Adv Seth Nthai and John Ernstzen. Two of whom jave served on the JSE since its inception.
Why would Zuma seek to replace these gentlemen now?
Related deployments:
I appreciate the new appointments in the JSC.
I trust that the judiciary transformation will not be seen to be done but it must be done. I am sure Adv. Ntsebeza will push the transformation by all means.
The transformation was a daily song of Adv Ntsebeza at the time when he was a BLA branch executive chairperson at Cape Town. Cape Town is the first place where the transformation must be made. We cannot ran from the fact that any workplace in Cape Town there is a racism whether is directly or indirectly but the habit still exist.
Let us support our JSC by all means to transform the judiciary.
Pasika, what do you mean when you talk of “transformation”?
The removal of non blacks form the judiciary?
I do not think that you follow me Kameraad – a transformation is not about to remove anyone than to balance the judiciary. We cannot ran away from the fact that blacks were deprived of the opportunities.
The objective of the transformation in fact is to balance the judicry every race or people benefit equal.
“The objective of the transformation in fact is to balance the judicry every race or people benefit equal.”
What do you mean by benefit? The judiciary is supposed to ‘serve’, it is not a sop to be handed out for ‘benefit’.
To effect redress for the poor you build houses and schools and teachers training colleges, and give bursaries to pupils without money, and give money to single mothers etc.
Appointing judges that are not qualified do their jobs, just because of the colour of their skin, hurts the poor most, AND because of this it seems racist – there is no justification of it being about redress.
Where are we now?