Durban - Public Protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, 51, Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe, 62, and Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, 61, are among the eight legal fraternity heavyweights who have been nominated to take the position of chief justice.
According to the Presidency, 148 submissions were made when the process opened on September 16 this year and only 25 met all the criteria.
Upon further scrutiny, only eight candidates made it to the list of the nominations panel chaired by Judge Navanethem (Navi) Pillay.
The other nominees are as follows: Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, Justice Mandisa Maya (the current president of the Supreme Court of Appeal), Dr Wallace Amos Mgoqi, Judge President Dunstan Mlambo and advocate Alan Nelson SC.
According to the Presidency, the process now moves to make written objections before the list is narrowed down to five and submitted to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The president will then have to pick the candidate to fill the position to be vacated by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.
“South Africans are now invited to submit in writing any objections they may have regarding the nominees to [email protected] and [email protected] by 17:00 on Friday, 15 October 2021.
“The panel will consider objections before submitting a shortlist of three to five names to the President. The Panel is required to report to the President by Friday, 29 October 2021 and its Terms of Reference are also available on the Presidency website,” the Presidency said in a statement on Monday.
Mkhwebane and Hlophe are facing impeachment while Zondo is facing criticism from supporters of former president Jacob Zuma that he allegedly abused his authority to get the former head of state jailed for contempt of court.
Mlambo, 62, was last year attacked by the ANC acting secretary-general, who told a meeting between the ruling party’s top six and Zuma that it was eyebrow-raising that the ANC was losing all cases presided over by him.
– IOL