Race quota alleged in selection of magistrates

An acting magistrate has alleged a strict and unlawful race quota system is in operation regarding the appointment of magistrates in the Free State region. Volksblad reports that Richard Lawrence told the told the Free State High Court that not a single white candidate was short-listed for appointment in Bloemfontein, Botshabelo and Petrusburg. He alleges that Free State Regional Court President Zola Mbalo was acting negligently and with bias in the process. According to Volksblad, some of the utterances during the short-listing process allegedly included: ‘Take away the whites; take the white away’, ‘I don’t think we have to consider the whites at all’ and ‘No, we don’t want white men, madam chair, please. I would rather see the positions re-advertised than to choose white men or women’. Lawrence argues that the short-listing process should be set aside as the committee did not even look at the applications of white candidates. The Helen Suzman Foundation has entered the fray as a friend of the court. The foundation argues that race and gender were elevated above any other criteria when the starting point should have been whether a candidate is competent, has the right qualifications and is a South African citizen. Mbalo and the Minister of Justice are opposing the application, saying white magistrates are over-represented in that cluster, adding the appointment committee had placed 45 white candidates on the short lists for other clusters. Judgment was reserved.