The Judicial Service Commission has slammed a judge who is competing for a position on the Supreme Court of Appeal for attending a golf tournament instead of writing urgent judgments.
John Motata, a former member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's amnesty committee, had a hard time fending off a salvo of criticisms about tardy work from commissioners, including the president of the Appeal Court, Craig Howie.
Motata and Cape Judge Belinda van Heerden, both acting judges of appeal, have applied for the position.
It emerged at the hearing that Howie gave Motata an appeal case concerning a rape charge at the end of November and that instead of finalising the case before the end of the week, he had travelled to George over the weekend to attend a golf tournament.
Howie said Motata had completed his judgment the following Tuesday but it had to be redone by another judge who complained to Howie that it was "scrappy, incomplete and full of deletions and alterations".
"He considered it so inadequate that he wrote his own judgment and that's the judgment that was delivered."
Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson said judgments handed down by Motata in at least four matters had taken him more than a year each to finalise, corroborating a report by the Pretoria Bar Council which complained of long delays in Motata's delivering of judgments.
Motata blamed a heavy workload and advocates who often gave him heaps of argument documents running into hundreds of pages.
Asked whether he had a language or formulation problem, Motata said he was proficient in English and in his view more than ready to take up the job.
But Judge President of the Transvaal Bernard Ngoepe's advice to Motata was to use his own language more often.
"I'm not sure there is anything good you did at the Supreme Court of Appeal and my advice to you is to write judgments in your own language - they will get around faster," he said.
A light moment in the proceedings was provided by Independent Democrats member of parliament Cecil Burgess, who noted that Motata was vice-chairman of a soccer team, the Free State Stars, and added: "I just want to satisfy myself that you are not delaying judgments by watching soccer."
Motata assured commissioners that he had not set foot on any soccer ground since becoming an acting judge at the Appeal Court last year.
Van Heerden, a former university lecturer, said her stint at the Appeal Court for the past three terms had been stimulating.
Commissioners had earlier charged that Motata's six reported judgments did not compare favourably with Van Heerden's 43 in the past four-and-a-half years, even though Motata's judgments were handed down in a shorter period of three-and-a-half years.
If Van Heerden is appointed, she will be the only woman judge at the Appeal Court as Judge Carol Lewis is on long leave.
Commissioner George Bizos pointed out that in all the cases she was currently presiding over at the Appeal Court a woman's perspective was valuable.
On the question of gender imbalances in the judiciary Van Heerden said that although there was still a long way to go, South Africa was already ahead of other developed countries.