Only women in battle for post on Cape Bench

All four candidates for the post interviewed by the JSC yesterday were women. The commission recommended Johannesburg attorney Nolwazi Boqwana (40) for appointment over the other candidates, Advocates Roseline Nyman and Diane Davis and attorney Kate Savage. A Mail & Guardian Online report says that at times during all four interviews - especially when asked by Commissioner Dumisa Ntsebeza whether they would avail themselves for a vacant position on the Labour Court Bench - it seemed as if the JSC was hoping all four could be appointed. The report notes the JSC has come under increasing criticism because of the lethargic pace of transformation of the judiciary in terms of racial and gender dynamics within the legal fraternity. Tabeth Masengu, a researcher at the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit attached to UCT, reportedly said the interviews were a breath of fresh air. 'It was the first time I witnessed interviews for a provincial division that had only female candidates. In addition, the candidates were all intellectually apt, highly competent, experienced and very good orators,' said Masengu. Full Mail & Guardian Online report

Boqwana believes her appointment will send out the message that race, gender and youth are not barriers to being appointed a judge, according to a Cape Times report. Boqwana is a director at Thipa Incorporated in Johannesburg and is acting at the Western Cape High Court. In her interview yesterday she said she did not view her relative youth as negative. 'I think it's a positive thing because it entails eagerness. It entails willingness to learn. It entails an attitude that I'm not set in my ways. I'm willing to be guided and I have potential to grow in the judiciary.' She added: 'My appointment will send a positive message by changing that perception that if you're black, you're not eligible to be appointed or if you're female, you're not eligible to be appointed,' she said. While Boqwana is an expert in labour law, the report notes she has also garnered experience in other areas, such as pension law, administrative law, constitutional law and family law, among others. Full Cape Times report (subscription needed)

Nyman, who has acted as a judge for five terms in the Western Cape High Court, said the legal profession frowned on graduates from previously 'black' universities, perceiving them to be intellectually 'inferior' to their counterparts from former predominantly white institutions. According to a report in The Times, she used the banking industry to amplify her assertion that big corporates were not briefing black female lawyers, robbing them of the opportunity to gain enough experience to be considered for positions in the High Court. Nyman said the big four banks were simply ignoring black female lawyers in favour of white males. When Chief Justice Mogoeng asked about her CV statement that she had been an ANC member since 1994, she reportedly said: 'I am not a member of the ANC. I was a member of the ANC; that was in 1994 when I was teaching at university.' Full report in The Times

Mogoeng questioned all four interviewees on the scarce pool from which the JSC could draw women judges, saying that the perception was being bandied about that 'somehow the Chief Justice and the commission do not want, or are not committed, to having women appointed to the higher courts', notes a Cape Times report. Savage told the JSC that there was a tendency to give all the good work to men because they were seen more traditionally in the role of litigators. Women, however, were very much seen as 'backroom contract drafters'. Many women entered the profession as attorneys, said Savage, but not that many rose to the higher echelons of the legal fraternity. When asked about her infrequent court appearances, Davis said she did not often appear in court because she preferred to do the kind of cases she wanted to do, rather than turning to family and matrimonial work, which was 'often the way that women at the Cape Bar survive'. 'There is inequality and women very often don't get the experience and exposure to the big briefs that make people rise,' she told the commission. Full Cape Times report (subscription needed)