Dali Mpofu to exit JSC, Kameshni Pillay to represent Advocates For Transformation

Advocates For Transformation (AFT) this week chose a new representative for the Judicial Service Commission (JSC): senior counsel (SC) Kameshni Pillay will replace Dali Mpofu SC when the JSC meets in April to interview candidates for appointment as judges, including two appointments to the Constitutional Court.

Siphokazi Poswa-Lerotholi SC will be Pillay’s alternate in the event Pillay is unavailable.

The decision followed a report from an AFT subcommittee after the shambolic interviews for chief justice in February, during which Mpofu’s conduct was widely criticised. The subcommittee was set up to review the performance of AFT representatives at the JSC, develop guidelines for its representatives and provide new names as Mpofu’s term was coming to an end.

The report revealed some AFT members had also criticised Mpofu, but it found that the way in which AFT had handled the end of Mpofu’s term of office “leaves a lot to be desired”.

It said Mpofu should first have been told in writing and AFT should have sought to meet with him. Instead “it seems to us there was media pressure brought to bear”, said the committee members, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC, Joe Nxusani SC, Phumlani Ngobese SC, Kgomotso Nhlapo-Merabe, Dustin Thompson and Siphokazi Cubungu.

They said AFT knew the chief justice interviews were coming up but the national executive committee “took no steps to engage with Mpofu to align his position” in advance. 

The report said individual members of the JSC did not sit on that body “to represent their own personal interests. They are required to promote the provisions of the constitution. A member who is nominated to represent AFT is not entitled to pursue their own personal interests, which are unrelated to the constitution or to the objectives of AFT”.

It sets detailed guidelines for its representatives on the JSC. These include:

• that its representatives must treat each candidate’s CV fairly and “consider it objectively without bias or preconception”;
• “that each candidate is afforded a fair warning in advance of any adverse information”; 
• that every candidate be treated “with decorum, courtesy and professionalism”; and
• to contribute constructively during the deliberations.

The subcommittee said the guidelines should include that AFT could call its members to account at any stage and give them “a reprimand or warning, or in serious cases, recall the member and report their conduct to the structures of the profession which are responsible for discipline of advocates”.

Nhlapo-Merabe confirmed to TimesLIVE that the subcommittee report had been adopted and Pillay had accepted the nomination.

TimesLIVE

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