Ditch Afrikaans, senior judge suggests

According to a report in The Times, Judge Cynthia Pretorius - one of three judicial officers from the North Gauteng High Court interviewed for the position to be vacated by Judge Willie van der Merwe at the end of next month - told the JSC yesterday that English should be the only language used by lawyers in court. The report says she told the commission that Afrikaans should not be given special treatment in the courts and should be abandoned as a language in which to present oral argument. 'I have thought about the language thing and I have spoken about it to my colleagues. I don't think that Afrikaans should be accorded a special place,' Pretorius is quoted as saying in response to questioning by JSC member Dumisa Ntsebeza. Pretorius said Afrikaans should be dropped in favour of English because the latter was the second language of most judicial officers and other legal practitioners. IFP MP Koos van der Merwe, also a JSC commissioner, said he did not agree with Pretorius. 'I disagree that English should be the language of record but we are not going to solve the problem in our lifetime,' he reportedly said. Judge Aubrey Ledwaba, who turned out to be the successful candidate, said he would also prefer English to be the only language of record in court. Judge Lettie Molopa-Sethosa said she understood Afrikaans but was 'not comfortable' using it to communicate with lawyers. Full report in The Times

Madala Masuku questioned Pretorius about a recent request to recuse herself in a matter between the Higher Education Transformation Network and AfriForum attorney Willie Spies. According to a Beeld report, Pretorius told the JSC the fact she was Afrikaans-speaking should not be held against her. 'It is how I was born. I don't think it can be held against me that I'm a white, Afrikaans woman,' she reportedly said. Masuku asked her how she would handle the language issue. 'By doing my job,' she responded. Full Beeld report

The JSC surprisingly recommended Ledwaba, the only male candidate, for the Deputy Judge President post. A report in Business Day notes that the JSC has, for some time, been vocal about its commitment to ensuring that more women are appointed judges. There are only two women who hold leadership positions in the judiciary, North West Judge President Monica Leeuw and Western Cape Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso. The report says that in this round, it was widely expected that one of the two women candidates, Molopa-Sethosa or Pretorius, would be chosen. But JSC spokesmen Dumisa Ntsebeza SC and CP Fourie said the commission did consider section 174(2) of the Constitution, which required it to consider the need for the judiciary to broadly reflect the country's demographics. There was no 'set formula' for the JSC to apply this principle and it was not an 'exact calculation', Fourie added. Ledwaba is the longest-serving of the three, but only by a year. During his interview, says the report, he noted that when it came to high-profile, sensitive or political cases, it was important to allocate a judge according to what would give confidence to the community. Full Business Day report

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng earlier told candidates for Deputy Judge President of the Gauteng divisions need not apply unless they have a plan to right their 'embarrassing' record of reserved judgments. A report in The Citizen quotes him as saying: 'It is an ever-recurring problem, particularly in the North Gauteng High Court, with reserved judgments that last anything from two years and beyond.' He was speaking to Ledwaba, the first of seven candidates interviewed for the post yesterday. He said the issue was a 'critical' requirement for the JSC, more so than a candidate's record of reported judgments. Ledwaba said he believed the problem could be partially addressed by naming-and-shaming judges who routinely postponed pronouncing on cases, but he cautioned that the Bench should not compromise quality for haste. Malopa-Sethosa, said judges' workloads often did not allow them adequate time to finalise complex judgments. Mogoeng said he had hoped candidates would have applied their minds to how they planned to address the high number of outstanding judgments at the High Courts in Johannesburg and Pretoria. 'It's a source of some embarrassment to your division,' he said. Candidates said the problem was exacerbated by the high number of civil cases on the roll, notably Road Accident Fund matters, which should be settled out of court. 'I think it is a tremendous waste of resources. There must be a mechanism whereby we can address that,' said Pretorius. Full report in The Citizen

Meanwhile, Mogoeng has been taken to task for his comments on merit and transformation as criteria used in choosing judges. Professor Kallie Snyman, of Pretoria, is quoted in Beeld as saying Mogoeng's comment that judicial appointments were not just about merit would be harmful to the country in the long term. 'Ten years ago, the world had great respect for the South African judiciary. It is probably not the case anymore,' he is quoted as saying. Snyman said Mogoeng's reported comments that 'the best of the best' need not necessarily be appointed as judges and his inference that transformation was the key consideration in the selection process was 'totally, totally wrong and dangerous'. A senior serving judge, who the report says declined to be named, also rejected Mogoeng's comments. 'If you want to know what's happening to the quality of SA judges, just look at the poor quality of judgments being delivered in the country's highest courts, even the SCA,' the judge reportedly said. Full Beeld report