President Cyril Ramaphosa has nominated four candidates for deputy chief justice:
- Gauteng judge president Dunstan Mlambo;
- Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) president Mahube Molemela;
- Free State judge president Cagney Musi; and
- Northern Cape judge president Pule Tlaletsi.
Letters have been sent to leaders of political parties in parliament and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) asking them for their views on the candidates. This is a requirement of the constitution, which says the president appoints the deputy chief justice “after consulting” the JSC and the leaders of the political parties represented in the National Assembly. This means the president must consider their views, but is not bound by them.
The position of deputy chief justice has been vacant since September last year and there has been criticism about Ramaphosa’s delay in filling the crucial leadership vacancy. However, the nominations may raise eyebrows in the legal community for several reasons, including that none of the nominations have been drawn from the ranks of the Constitutional Court.
However, two independent sources told TimesLIVE Premium that several potential candidates declined nomination, though it was not clear whether those approached were from the ranks of ConCourt justices.
Mlambo has been widely considered a front-runner for the vacancy. He was nominated for chief justice in 2022 alongside former chief justice Raymond Zondo and current chief justice Mandisa Maya. But the other three — though respected judges — were not until now viewed as in the running for the deputy chief justice post.
Molemela was twice before recommended by the JSC for appointment to the Constitutional Court. But she was appointed as president of the SCA fairly recently, in 2023, and told the JSC in her interview that she would remain at the SCA and not soon make herself available for the Constitutional Court if appointed.
The nominations will also likely mean public interviews of the candidates by the JSC. The February 2022 interviews — in which Zondo, Maya, acting deputy chief justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga and Mlambo were all interviewed — were famously fraught and bruising for the candidates, leading to questions about the prudence of nominating more than one candidate for judicial leadership posts.
After that round of interviews, Zondo was appointed as chief justice, even though the JSC recommended Maya for the post.
Since then, and until now, Ramaphosa made single nominations for judicial leadership posts — he nominated Maya for deputy chief justice in March 2022, Molemela for president of the SCA in February 2023, Maya for chief justice in February 2024, and, on the same date, nominated Dumisani Zondi for deputy president of the SCA.
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