A would-be judge raised some eyebrows in the Judicial Service Commission on Friday when he insisted that the Black Lawyers' Association (BLA) was a political rather than a legal organisation.
Mthatha advocate Robert Dilizo also admitted that though he claimed to be a member of the BLA in his application for a post on the Transkei bench, he had never attended a meeting of the organisation.
Dilizo, a former homeland prosecutor and magistrate, was one of four candidates for the single post interviewed on Friday at the JSC's sitting in Cape Town.
He had written "none" in the space in the standard JSC questionnaire in which he was asked to list his membership of organisations connected with the legal profession.
However under "membership of any political organisation", he listed BLA, and said he joined it this year.
Under questioning from commissioners, he insisted the BLA was indeed a political organisation, and denied that the fact that he joined this year had anything to do with his application.
Asked exactly when he joined, he said he could not be certain.
"Have you attended a single meeting?" asked commission member Kgomotso Moroka.
"I seldom attend them," replied Dilizo.
"This year, 2008: have you attended a BLA meeting?" Moroka asked.
"In 2008, no," said Dilizo.
Dilizo was also quizzed on a section of the form where applicants were asked to say what proportion of their legal work had been devoted to particular areas of law.
For criminal law, he put down "70 percent". But then he put down 80 percent for administrative law, 40 percent for constitutional law, and 50 percent for labour law.
He told the commission he realised he had erred in calculating "each of them on 100 percent instead of collectively 100 percent".
The next applicant, former Zimbabwean judge Chris Greenland, was grilled over a claim by the Eastern Cape Society of Advocates that he had appeared to be unfamiliar with basic court procedure when he presided as an acting judge over a motion court in Grahamstown earlier this month.
Among other things, said commissioner Julian von Klemperer, Greenland had reportedly been uncertain whether newly-admitted advocates should take their oath in open court, or in the judge's chambers.
"That is absolutely untrue," Greenland shot back.
However Von Klemperer then read out extracts from the transcript of those court proceedings, in which Grahamstown attorney Mark Nettleton presented Neliswa Dinge for admission as an advocate.
The transcript recorded Greenland as saying: "Yes she's not required to take an oath."
"Yes m'lord, it's customary for the applicant to come before your lordship's registrar who administers an oath m'lord," said Nettleton.
"It's not done in court," said Greenland.
"It is m'lord, in submission, madam registrar has the oath before her m'lord," said Nettleton doggedly.
Greenland eventually agreed to Dinge taking the oath in court, and she was admitted.
Greenland told the commission he had certainly not implied that the oath should not be administered in open court, and that he had already before that day presided over numerous admissions.
He could only think that there had been a "misrecording", or that the transcript did not contain everything that was said on that occasion.
The notion that oaths should be administered in chambers was "preposterous", he said.
According to the transcript Dinge was one of six people admitted as advocates or attorneys that day. When they had all taken the oath, Greenland made them all stand up and invited them to "tell me the definition of justice".
"Are you not going to make a submission on the day of your appearance, admission?" he asked.
He told them being a lawyer was "not about law, it's about justice, and the two are not necessarily the same - even though you are qualified as a lawyer your first duty and allegiance must be to justice".
The last of the four candidates interviewed on Friday was Gcuwa attorney Pakamisa Tshiki, who was asked by an amused Justice Minister Enver Surty why he had entered his date of birth on the questionnaire as "20th September 1959 (on a Saturday)".
"It's just a matter of completeness," replied Tshiki with a smile.
"It's a good attribute because you're paying particular attention to detail," said Surty. - Sapa