The Judicial Service Commission's interviews to fill vacancies in the superior courts will continue on Tuesday.
The interviews, set down for this week until April 21, is taking place in Johannesburg.
On Monday, the Commission said it would recommend Justice Mahube Molemela for the position of President of the Supreme Court of Appeal.
The commission interviewed Molemela, the only candidate for the post, on Monday.
It said it would formally advise President Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint Justice Molemela for the post at the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Ramaphosa nominated her in February and asked the JSC to advise on her suitability to hold the position.
Molemela, an SCA judge, would replace Deputy Chief Justice Mandisa Maya if appointed.
Justice Maya was appointed as Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa replacing the former Deputy Chief Justice and current Chief Justice Raymond Zondo effectively from September 1, 2022.
On Tuesday, the Commission is expected to conduct interviews for positions at the Competition Appeal Court, Mpumalanga Division of the High Court and Northern Cape Division of the High Court.
Interviews are set down for 40 minutes a candidate with Tuesdays first interview slot given to Judge Lister Gcinikaya Nuku for a vacancy at the Competition Appeal Court.
While acting on the Western Cape Bench, Nuku set aside the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) suspension of #RhodesMustFall activist and the guy who flung the first bit of poo in a protest that eventually led to the Cecil John Rhodes statue being removed from campus, Chumani Mxwele.
UCT had alleged that Maxwele had racially abused and threatened a lecturer in May of 2015. Nuku found that Maxwele’s second suspension hearing was “tainted with bias” and that jurisdictional requirements for the suspension had not been met.
Nuku was admitted as an attorney in 1996, after working as a candidate attorney at two Cape law firms. From 1999 until 2016 he was a partner at law firm Nongogo, Nuku Incorporated, where he was Western Cape Judge President John Hlope’s attorney in his ongoing legal battles with the judges of the Constitutional Court relating to allegations that Hlope had unduly approached two of them regarding a matter before the country’s apex court involving President Jacob Zuma.
Judge Brian Solomon Spilg will also vie for a post in the Competition Appeal Court with his interview set before the tea break shortly before 10am.
The panel of commissioners includes EFF leader Julius Malema, SCA acting president Xola Petse and Gratitude Magwanishe, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services and IFP MP Narend Singh.
Kailene.pillay@inl.co.za
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