JSC to resume proposing Western Cape candidates

Since the litigation started, after last April's interviews, the JSC put all appointments to the Western Cape bench on hold and vacancies have been building up - there are now between five and seven vacant posts on the bench.

In the meantime, the gap is being filled by acting judges. At the moment, there are seven acting judges on the Cape bench but there have been as many as 10 since the litigation started - almost a third of the bench.

The Cape Bar Council went to court after the JSC recommended just one candidate for appointment, despite three vacancies and a number of applicants the council argued were eminently suitable.

The council won its case in the high court but the JSC took the high court judgment on appeal.

In October, the JSC decided it could not interview any more candidates for the Western Cape because one of the high court's orders was that those candidates who were overlooked in April and who were still interested in the job had to be reconsidered.

But on Friday, JSC spokesman CP Fourie said all the unsuccessful April candidates had withdrawn their candidacies and this allowed the JSC to continue with interviews in October.

The JSC finished its work on Thursday instead of Friday, as scheduled. Interviews for the North and South Gauteng High Courts carried on into the evening. Again, the JSC will be unable to fill all vacancies in SA's busiest courts, with only five candidates being interviewed on Thursday, despite six vacancies.

It is unlikely that all five will be appointed. One candidate, Anné Arnoldi SC, struggled to explain an allegation that, many years ago, he had billed a client directly and then had billed the attorney as well. At first he said there was nothing wrong with what he had done, then he said he had never been instructed by the attorney in question, then he remembered that he had been instructed by the attorney, but said he had never been paid.

This was despite the fact that Gauteng Judge President Bernard Ngoepe had, a week prior, told Mr Arnoldi that he should prepare himself for the question.

Another candidate, Gerrit Muller SC, an advocate for 23 years, said he had not come across the term "judicial restraint".

During Wednesday's interviews for judge president of Gauteng, candidates were asked why there was such a "dearth" of candidates for the province.

Reportedly there were 38 applications for the Gauteng high courts, but only five were of sufficient quality to interview.

Commissioner Izak Smuts SC asked if the reason was that "this commission has repeatedly failed to appoint excellent candidates when they are available" - a view held by many Gauteng advocates. Last year, the JSC overlooked top silks Willem van der Linde SC and Gerald Farber SC for Gauteng.

Deputy Judge President Phineas Mojapelo said answering that question would be "guesswork". He also told the commission that in previous rounds the JSC had been "luckier" in its Gauteng candidates.

But he said he had heard the "rumblings" to which Mr Smuts was referring. However, this criticism was sometimes "not informed" and unjustified.

Labour Court Judge President Dunstan Mlambo, who was interviewed for Gauteng judge president, said he could not answer the question because he had not been at the Gauteng courts but said that he had had an "avalanche" of people wanting to act at the labour courts.

Source: Business Day