Judge president hopeful forced to apologise for ‘tribalism’ comments

Limpopo judge Maake Kganyago was forced to apologise for and withdraw comments that the division needed to be transformed to be representative of “Pedis, Tsongas and Vendas”.

He made the comment in his introductory remarks in his interview before the Judicial Service Commission for appointment as the judge president of the division.

He said the perception was that “Pedi’s are seen to be dominating” in the court.

“For the public to have confidence in the court, it must be representative,” he said, saying, if he was appointed,  he would deal with this transformation issue through the appointment of acting judges. 

Several commissioners took issue with this.

Grilled on the issue, judge Kganyago said the issue of “tribalism” had been raised in an anonymous circular when he applied to become a judge five years ago.

Commissioner Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, accused him of “reinforcing tribalism”.

“I find it astonishing to hear this language in the JSC,” he said.

But Kganyago persisted: “I am only talking about what I observed when I was interviewed to become a judge ... that Limpopo was a Pedi court.”

I am only talking about what I observed when I was interviewed to become a judge ... that Limpopo was a Pedi court.

—  Limpopo judge Maake Kganyago

Commissioner Julius Malema was having none of it.

“Why are you raising this nonexistent circular five years later? Why did you not raise it here five years ago? The public is watching this. You must withdraw (what you said) and apologise.” 

Kganyago complied.

During his interview,  Kganyago said the division was growing at such a pace that court files were now being stored in cells for awaiting trial prisoners.

“Where will we put our high risk, awaiting trial prisoners when these cells are full? They will have to sit in the gallery.”

He said there was no space in the general office for the files and, apart from the cells, some were being kept in the basement parking area, which regularly flooded.

The consensus seemed to be that Kganyago was too inexperienced for the job and had no leadership experience.

He flagged access to justice in the province as a major issue, and said there needed to be more circuit courts closer to the rural areas and people.

Regarding criticism from the legal profession that he had “collapsed the court roll” this year, he said this was because he had discovered that matters were being set down “improperly”  and that there were reports that “you could pay” to jump the queue.

“I intervened and called the registrar’s office. They said some practitioners said I had made an order that some matters must be enrolled, which was not true. 

“I called the chief registrar to put some control measures in place so it was not a free for all. I believe that electronic filing and record keeping needs to be introduced to resolve the space issue and the improper allocation of dates.”

Asked why he was applying for the job over the head of the deputy judge president Matsaro Semenya, he said she had given him her “blessing”.

“She told me she did not want to apply for the job but did not give me a reason,” he said.