JUDICIAL SERVICE COMMISSION: JSC interviews scrutinise Eastern Cape judiciary, deputy judge president post unfilled

“Being in the Eastern Cape, there would be reluctance to interact with the issue to some extent,” replied Judge Buyiswa Majiki to a question on hesitancy to discuss sexual harassment involving acting Eastern Cape Judge President Zamani Nhlangulela during Tuesday’s JSC interviews. 

“We are abreast of the issue, but I can’t deny I can just easily talk about it. There is a restrained talking about it, maybe until at least the issues we are talking about are finalised,” she added later.

Mbenenge suspension fight

In an ongoing saga, Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge remains on special leave, but still in office, after successfully obtaining an interdict pending his review of the JSC finding that he was guilty of gross misconduct for sexual harassment. 

The interdict was issued days after the JSC announced on 27 July 2026 that it had asked the President to suspend Mbenenge pending parliamentary impeachment proceedings. In April 2026, the JSC found him guilty of impeachable gross misconduct, overturning an earlier Judicial Conduct Tribunal guilty finding on a lesser conduct code violation. The matter dates back to 2023 when his court secretary, Andiswa Mengo, laid a complaint.

Judge Vuyokazi Noncembu took a different view, pointing out that Eastern Cape judges fully participated in training, and a wellness retreat that also discussed sexual harassment. Her comments on the wellness event were echoed by Judge Bulelwa Pakati, “ I want to allay fears; judges in the Eastern Cape did comment a lot”.

The deputy judge president vacancy arose in 2025 when Judge David van Zyl retired. While the JSC interviewed for the post in October 2025, situated at the Gqeberha high court, it was not filled. It did not come up in April 2026, when the JSC filled other vacancies in the Eastern Cape.

Mthatha malaise

On Tuesday, the pressure was on Eastern Cape high courts, where Mthatha particularly emerged in connection with case management, including case files under sofas, slow case finalisation and disarray in the master’s office.

Chief Justice Mandisa Maya straightforwardly asked Judge Fathima Dawood why she was “running away” from Mthatha to the better-organised Gqeberha court. Dawood said she was not running away, but accepted that problems existed: “It casts a bad light on all of us.”

The issues around the Mthatha high court also came to the fore a day earlier when Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi asked Judge Gerald Bloem why litigants were choosing the Makhanda court rather than Bisho or Mthatha.

Bloem replied that unopposed matters such as the proceedings of banks against debtors could also have been enrolled elsewhere. “But banks prefer to do it in Grahamstown. If a matter is in Makhanda, it will be dealt with in no time... I don’t know why that has not happened in Mthatha…”

Kubayi has been keeping an eye on court jurisdictions, although she reversed her decision to remove Madibeng from Pretoria to the Mahikeng high court after litigation by lawyers’ associations. Further litigation is pending by Pretoria advocates and attorneys groups.

Age-related issues

While no questions on AI were asked, unlike on Monday, the issue of age came up differently. For judges Dawood and Pakati, it was approaching retirement age – judges leave office at 70 – as happened with Judge Bloem, who’s 67, on Monday. For Judge Noncembu, despite judicial management at regional court level, it was the reverse: lack of experience, as acting Eastern Cape Judge President Nhlangulela described it. 

While the Eastern Cape recommendation remains undecided, the JSC recommended to President Cyril Ramaphosa judges Mfuniselwa Nkosi and James Lekhuleni for the two vacancies on the Competition Appeal Court. DM