Ramaphosa's move not to nominate currently sitting ConCourt justices for DCJ position questioned

JOHANNESBURG - Some sectors of the legal profession have questioned why President Cyril Ramaphosa did not nominate justices currently sitting on the Constitutional Court bench for the position of deputy chief justice.

Earlier in April, the president nominated four candidates for the position, with none of them stemming from the apex bench.

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The position has not been occupied on a permanent basis since the appointment of Mandisa Maya to chief justice of the country in September.

With the looming retirement of Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga in July, who has been acting in the position since Maya’s ascension, the need to appoint a permanent chief justice has become more urgent.

Ramaphosa broke tradition when he appointed Maya to the deputy chief justice position in 2022.

Previously, the nominations and appointments to the Constitutional Court have been drawn from the apex bench.

Ramaphosa has again used the same practice with his nomination of deputy chief justice candidates earlier in April, none of whom stem from the current Concourt bench.

But this isn’t a bad thing, as explained by Mbekezeli Benjamin, researcher and advocacy officer at Judges Matter: "I think what he was looking for probably is a person who knows the system in the judiciary and who does have that leadership experience in terms of leading the court and being able to be on the ground and understanding how the courts work from the ground up."

Benjamin added that not all of the justices of the Constitutional Court had this experience and that the current crop the president had nominated were jurists who were able to handle that responsibility.