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Cape Town - Four women were among the six people nominated after gruelling interviews for Gauteng high court judge positions, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) said in Cape Town on Tuesday.
"We are pleased to announce, we were able to fill all the vacancies," said JSC commission spokesperson CP Fourie.
Many of the candidates were from small towns, having worked their way up in the judiciary.
All the candidates were subject to a gruelling interview process by a panel, which included Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema. Each application allowed candidates to declare anything that might cause later embarrassment to the judiciary.
The candidates selected for President Jacob Zuma's consideration and confirmation are:
- Judge Annali Basson, who hails from Pretoria and who has been a Labour Court judge since 2007. She was also a professor of law before joining the bench there and a commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration;
- Advocate Raylene Keightley, from Kokstad, was a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Cape Town. She has worked for the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), and is a panel member of the Wits student disciplinary committee;
- Nelisa Mali, born in Ngangelizwe township in Mthatha. Her CV includes time as a public prosecutor, deputy director in the NDPP tax unit and an assistant general manager at the SA Revenue Services. She was nominated by the Black Lawyers Association. She was a member of the ANC, but last paid her subscription fee in 2009. In her application she revealed that she had been arrested with six others after cheques worth R2.4m went missing from the Elliotdale Magistrate's Court in 1997. A relative who is now dead, had worked there. Mali said the case was withdrawn and she never knew why she had been arrested in the first place.
- Attorney Lebogang Modiba hails from Alexandra and has studied at Harvard and worked at the Women's Legal Centre. She also has a busy schedule of church work and sponsoring children's programmes.
- Thifhelimbu Phanuel Mudau of the Randburg Regional Court spent time as a court interpreter during his university holidays and his resume includes being on a school governing body in Randburg.
- Advocate Willem van der Linde's name was also put forward despite conceding in his interview that he had joined Ruiterwag, the youth wing of the Afrikaner Broederbond, when he was a student. He said this was "indefensible".
Interviews for vacancies in other provinces were continuing.
