Bhisho judge chair still empty as JSC rejects 4

The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) turned down a tearful plea from Judge Nozuko Mjali to be transferred from Mthatha to a vacant post in Bhisho.

Chairman of the Eastern Cape Society of Advocates Gerald Bloem said their submission to the JSC on Mjali’s position was that Judge President Themba Sangoni had the authority to move a judge from “one centre to another” within a division.

But JSC spokesperson Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza was emphatic yesterday that the move from Mthatha to Bhisho was from one division to another and could not be sanctioned. He added that Mjali had adopted an attitude of “it was either her way or the highway”, during the interview for the Bhisho vacancy that occurred when Judge Duncan Dukade died.

The JSC declined to make an appointment on Tuesday, after interviewing Mjali, East London attorney Thembekile Malusi, Advocate Chuma Cossie and Magistrate Sadia Jacobs.

Mjali has been a judge at the Mthatha High Court since 2010.

In her emotional plea to the JSC, she said she needed to move to Bhisho to manage the impact on her family of the arrest of her husband, Cebo Macingwane, and subsequent trial on a charge of raping the family’s 23-year-old domestic worker.

The JSC held that Mjali had not provided “good cause” to justify the move, said Ntsebeza yesterday.

However last year’s Superior Courts Act created a single provincial division of the high court for the Eastern Cape, replacing remnants of the former Transkei and Ciskei constitutions. Bloem confirmed there was precedent for internal transfers among judges after Grahamstown-based Murray Lowe swapped with Glenn Goosen, who was originally from Port Elizabeth, and Elna Revelas swapped with Judith Roberson.

Sangoni was travelling yesterday and could not be contacted for comment. Ntsebeza’s response was that the advocates were “entitled to their opinions”.

Bloem said his body had supported Malusi for the vacancy because of the need for transformation on the Bhisho bench. Currently, the three judges in Bhisho are all white.

“He is competent to be a judge. His appointment would support in changing the racial composition of the Bhisho bench,” he said.

Advocate Mwazandile Ntsaluba, chairman of the Bhisho Society of Advocates, said they supported Cossie because she was in good standing in the society and the most senior of the four candidates.

He said the Bhisho advocates also supported the appointment of a black judge. Malusi was also the preferred candidate of the Black Lawyers’ Association, whose chairperson Camagu Maseti said: “His performance while on the bench was beyond reproach.”

Malusi, who is currently an acting judge in Bhisho, was criticised by the JSC over his perceived tardiness in delivering judgments, while Cossie was roasted for her lack of legal insights and Jacobs was regarded as too inexperienced. — siyab@dispatch.co.za / rayh@dispatch.co.za