One of the Judicial Services Commission’s most important functions is to interview candidates for judicial posts and to make recommendations on who they think should be appointed to the bench.
Because the body’s commissioners act in other professional capacities, the JSC meets for one week just twice a year — once during October and once during April — to interview shortlisted candidates.
The meetings usually take place in Sandton in Gauteng.
It requires an enormous amount of money, organisation and time to get all shortlisted candidates, commissioners and the various entourages to Sandton to do the interviews which are, for purposes of transparency, held in public and broadcast across several online platforms.
The Eastern Cape division has had three vacancies for a long time.
The JSC in October last year inexplicably cancelled interviews for the three Eastern Cape division vacancies.
There was no clarity on why. It issued a cryptic statement saying only that it was “due to issues relating to the shortlisting of candidates”.
It said the vacancies would be re-advertised for April this year.
What followed was speculation, rumour and uncertainty, none of which is healthy.
Now, in April, 10 people were shortlisted to be interviewed for the three posts.
After interviewing three of 10 candidates on Wednesday, chief justice Mandisa Maya asked that the commissioners remain for a short meeting before lunch to discuss an “urgent issue” which had come up.
Transparency is vital to promote integrity, legitimacy and public trust in the judicial appointment process
The JSC never returned from lunch to interview the remaining candidates.
At 5pm, Maya once again released a one-paragraph cryptic statement saying only that the JSC had “learnt of a possible conflict of interest” for the filling of vacancies in the Eastern Cape division for the high court and that this had led to the interviews being cancelled.
The interviews would “start afresh” on Thursday at 8am.
The only clue to the “conflict of interest” was that Eastern Cape judge Fathima Dawood replaced deputy judge president Zamani Nhlangulela on Thursday.
These sorts of unexplained delays are disruptive and expensive.
It means the JSC secretariat had to cancel flights home for Eastern Cape candidates and put them up in expensive accommodation for an extra day.
Thursday and Friday had been set aside to interview 11 candidates for the Western Cape bench.
And so, of course, their interviews were also bumped back to accommodate the Eastern Cape interviews.
The JSC often stands accused of making judicial appointments following political manoeuvring and manipulation rather than on the basis of merit or meaningful transformation. Secrecy fuels such allegations.
Transparency is vital to promote integrity, legitimacy and public trust in the judicial appointment process.
The chief justice needs to provide more clarity on the real reasons behind the delays in the vital work of the JSC.
Daily Dispatch
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