JUSTICE and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola said yesterday whoever was appointed as the next chief justice for the country would be the outcome of a process all South Africans would have participated in.
“I believe we will welcome that process and outcome because it will be the product of a democratic process by all South Africans,” Lamola said when he was responding to oral questions in the National Assembly
He described the move by President Cyril Ramaphosa to make the appointment of a suitable candidate as the first of its kind to be transparent and involved the public.
“This invitation promoted transparency and enabled public participation.
When the public was asked to make nominations for the next chief justice, 148 submissions of 25 names were made and eight met the criteria – four were subsequently interviewed.
Lamola dismissed a suggestion that there was capture of the judiciary, saying it was unfounded.
The minister insisted that it was for the first time in history the president opened the process for transparency and public participation and allowed all South Africans to take part in the appointment process.
“There can not be more transparency than that. The whole process is in the public eye,” he said.
Lashing out at claims of a captured judiciary, he said: “That assertion is not only far fetched, it is unscrupulous and it is unfounded. It has the hallmarks of conspiracies.”
Lamola used the oral question session to thank all those who made nominations for the next chief justice, who will be appointed after Ramaphosa completed consultation with the Judicial Service Commission and political parties.
“Those views will enable the president to appoint the chief justice. The acting chief justice is holding the fort and there is no crisis.”
Asked to explain the process followed to quell conspiracies bandied about, Lamola said in the past there was a process where one person was nominated.
The outgoing chief justices Mogoeng Mogoeng, Sandile Ngcobo and Pius Langa were appointed on the basis of the old process.
“What the current president has done is unprecedented. It is full of hallmarks of transparency and should be appreciated by all loving South Africans,” he said.
“It gave a platform for the people to have a say on who must become the chief justice. It also kills all kinds of conspiracies and matters that want to cast aspersions on the person of the president,” Lamola said, adding that Ramaphosa had shared his constitutional obligation to nominate a candidate and asked them to make inputs.
Lamola was asked whether the Judicial Service Commission should not adopt a code of conduct in how its members engaged between themselves and candidates during the interview process because the interview of the two last candidates created grounds of conspiracies.
In his response, Lamola said he agreed that there could be a need to adopt a code of conduct for the JSC members.
He however said there was protocol within the JSC and the constitution stipulated the type of people to be appointed.
Political Bureau