Concourt to rule on Zuma's extension of Ngcobo's term

The Constitutional Court will on Friday hand down judgment on whether it was constitutional or not for President Jacob Zuma to extend now-outgoing Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo's term of office.

The cabinet announced on Wednesday that Ngcobo had decided to withdraw his agreement to stay on for another five years, leaving the position vacant from August 15 if a replacement was not found by then.

Earlier in July, the court, without Ngcobo at the helm, heard a mass application against the way Zuma had offered Ngcobo an extended term.

Ngcobo's integrity was not in question, but the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution, Freedom Under Law, the Justice Alliance of SA and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand said that according to the constitution, Zuma needed to first consult with the Judicial Service Commission and political parties before granting an extension.

Zuma did it the other way around -- he granted the extension and then informed political parties and the JSC.

They further argued that the section of the Judges Remuneration and Conditions of Employment Act that allowed Zuma to extend Ngcobo's term was unconstitutional because, according to the constitution, a Constitutional Court judge's term of office could be extended only by an act of parliament.

The parties believe that there is not sufficient protection against abuse in parliament extending this power to a president.

At the hearing of the Constitutional Court on July 18, Ngcobo was not present, nor did he file papers, saying, rather, that he would abide by whatever the court decided.

Ngcobo's surprise withdrawal from the extension was hailed by many observers, with the SA Council of Churches saying it showed he was a "man of integrity".

As a consequence of Ngcobo's decision, parliament would also suspend its special sitting of the National Assembly scheduled for next Tuesday.

It would have approved amendments to a section in the Judges Renumeration Act dealing with terms of office of the chief justice.