Cape Town - South Africa’s Judicial Services Commission (JSC) has started its pivotal round of interviews to fill key vacancies across the country.
Chaired by Chief Justice Mandisa Maya, the interviews followed the High Court in Johannesburg dismissed an urgent application from the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) and its parliamentary leader, the former Western Cape judge president, John Hlophe, to stop the JSC interviews from proceeding.
In a shocking move on Monday, Hlophe announced he has withdrawn from the JSC, following an interdict by the Western Cape High Court, barring him from taking part in any JSC activities.
The JSC started with interviews for three key vacancies at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
Among the candidates is Western Cape High Court Judge Elizabeth Baartman.
Born in Hangberg, Hout Bay, Judge Baartman attended Grassy Park High School and obtained her B.Iuris (1986) and LLB (1994) degrees from the University of the Western Cape.
Judge Baartman started work as a prosecutor immediately after her junior law degree in 1986.
She would later serve as a district magistrate, trying both civil and criminal cases from 1991 to 1998 while studying for her law degree.
A judge on the Western Cape Bench since 2009, Baartman has heard cases including the urgent application brought by Primedia and other media organisations to ensure an uninterrupted television feed from Parliament.
This followed the cutting of the Parliamentary feed during the 2015 State of the Nation address when MPs were forcibly kicked out of the House for disrupting former President Jacob Zuma’s speech with chants of “pay back the money”.
Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo told the commission that Judge Baartman was one of his top students while they were training SCA judges on case lines.
When asked by the commission how she is going to deal with cases where she believes that judicial precedent as set out by previous courts is outdated and possibly no longer addresses the interest of justice, Judge Baartman said: “We deal with that in the High Court as well. If that happens, you look at the case in front of you and the facts in front of you, the pleaded case, and determine whether this is an appropriate case to develop the law, if the facts need that sort you would do that.
“It’s the case in front of you, whether that case is right, even if the case is not right to develop the common law, it is sometimes appropriate to make remarks, which other courts used afterwards to develop that.”
Judge Baartman told the commission that she wants to contribute more to the SCA, given the departure of senior justices.
“The Supreme Court of Appeal has lost a lot of experience. What they need is a judge who can effectively manage these 61 volumes and get on with it, that’s what they did to me in December. I got on with it.
“They need people who can hit the ground running after 15 years on the High Court bench, and we all know our court is busy. I can do that. That is what I bring – a willingness and ability to work, and that’s what that court needs,” she said.