JSC backs female judge

The Judicial Service Commission has recommended a female judge to head the Free State division of the High Court.

The commission yesterday recommended Judge Mahube Molemela for the job after interviewing four candidates.

Her colleague, Judge Mojalefa Rampai, also vying for the post, came under fire for his judgments in rape and gender-based violence cases.

When questioned about his decision to reduce the sentence of a child-rapist, Rampai said he had used his "judicial discretion" at the time of the trial.

Lobby group Judges Matter Coalition on Monday wrote to the commission asking it to "pay particular attention" to two of Rampai's judgments.

In the judgment, with which Molemela concurred, Rampai referred to "degrees" of rape.

He reduced the sentence for the rape of a young girl from 10 years to eight because of lack of "brutal force".

The rapist "should have been credited" for his use of "minimal force", Rampai said.

He said the absence of brutal force diminished the "moral blameworthiness" of the rapist.

"His crime did not rank among the worst of rape cases, serious though it was," he said.

In another case cited by the lobby group, Rampai reduced a murderer's prison sentence from 20 years to 15 on the grounds that it was a "crime of passion".

In giving his judgment - with which two other judges concurred - he said that the killer, who had stabbed his wife 38 times before she died, "could not be properly described as a cold-blooded murderer or animal".

He said the original prison sentence was "excessive" and "shockingly severe and inappropriate".

Rampai said the man's epilepsy might have contributed to the brutality of the attack.

The lobby group said there was "widespread concern" that gender-based violence was not being effectively tackled.

It said Rampai's two judgments "do not take the feelings of the community into account".

"We urge the commission to pay particular attention to these judgments as potentially indicating a failure to take into account the feelings of the community in relation to rape and gender-based violence."

Interviews for other judicial vacancies continue in Cape Town today.