Segopotje Mphahlele gets JSC nod for Mpumalanga judge president

The deputy judge president of the Mpumalanga high court, Segopotje Mphahlele, has been recommended for judge president by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) after the commission interviewed two candidates for the post on Tuesday. 

In her interview, Mphahlele described some of the challenges faced by the division, including the “serious problem” of a backlog in the division’s criminal court roll, which had been worsened by load-shedding, the Covid-19 pandemic and an increase in crime in the area. 

She said the division’s Middelburg court did not have its own generator and had to rely on the police for the use of its generator. “And when we are told it needs repairs, we have to patiently wait,” she said.

The criminal backlog had also been worsened by the collapse of some of the division’s circuit courts because there were not enough judges. 

“I cannot over-emphasise the need for the reopening of all the circuit courts,” she said. The backlog was creating a “backlash from the community”, especially when it came to cases involving children and gender-based violence. She appealed to justice minister Ronald Lamola, also a member of the JSC: “Minister, we really need to take justice to the people.” 

She said she hoped, as judge president, to create mobile courts for this purpose. There had also been an increase in people who came to court without lawyers when banks were on the verge of repossessing their houses — the rules allowed them to come and tell the court about their personal circumstances.

But if they were travelling from KwaNdebele to Middelburg by public transport, “by the time they arrive, I will be done with my roll,” she said.  

An issue that was raised with both candidates was practice directives issued by the court, which had caused “long-standing” unhappiness among the province’s lawyers. Practice directives are issued by judges president to deal with the daily functioning of their courts to supplement the rules of court.  

In submissions to the JSC, the General Council of the Bar (GCB) said some practitioners within the Mpumalanga division had complained that they were not consulted when directives were issued and “many of the provisions of the practice directives are in contravention of legislation and the Uniform Rules of Court to the extent that they impede accessibility, efficiency, and the proper functioning of the courts”. 

Judge Brian Mashile, the division’s fourth most senior judge, was the other candidate to be interviewed for the post. He said in his interview that, while the legal practitioners in the Middelburg area had engaged with the judiciary over their concerns with the practice directives, those in Mbombela had not “seriously engaged, to say we have problems”. 

He said the directives were made to serve the people on the ground, but if legal practitioners had challenges with them “the only thing is to engage with us vigorously”.  

But several commissioners — including the former chair of the Legal Practice Council Kathleen Matolo-Dlepu and acting president of the Supreme Court of Appeal Xola Petse — asked if there should not have been consultation prior to directives being put in place.

Gauteng judge president Dunstan Mlambo suggested that it was important for judges president to have the “buy-in” from the litigating community. 

Mphahlele said when the practice directives were issued and were being implemented, practitioners were invited to comment and that the only ones that engaged were those in Middelburg. “And we had a workshop with them, and they were happy.” Nothing had been raised about them by the Legal Practice Council representatives on the provincial efficiency enhancement committee either, she said. 

But she said that, after she saw the comments from the GCB, she thought that since many practitioners who appeared in the Mpumalanga courts came from Pretoria and Johannesburg, perhaps the invitation to consult did not reach all those who regularly appeared in the Mpumalanga courts.  

She said the directives were “not set in stone” and the door of the office of the judge president was always open for engagement. Now that she had seen the concerns, “we will go back and reflect,” she said.  

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