In Conversation with Muzi Sikhakhane SC – 1st Segment
In this First Segment, we explore only one question:
Who is Muzi Sikhakhane?
Justice Zondo Got it Wrong – Dr Paul Ngobeni
The Zondo Commission is, according to Dr Paul Ngobeni, fraught with existential, substantive and procedural irregularities.
It blurs the line between the executive and the judiciary, thereby disregarding the separation of powers doctrine; its flirtation with state law enforcement agencies following the president’s extraordinary changing of the rules during the game brings it into collision with the constitutional imperative of judicial independence; its conduct of its proceedings is in sharp contrast with well-established international norms and standards.
All this, says Dr Ngobeni, opens the Zondo Commission up to judicial review.
But will South African courts see it that way? Read for yourself, and decide.
Read the full analysis here: Why Justice Zondo Got It Wrong
In Conversation with Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo – Final Segment
In this Final Segment, South Africa’s Deputy Chief Justice, Justice Raymond Zondo, discusses matters affecting the judging and judgment-making process.
Some of the issues covered include
- Do Judges have no right to express personal opinions publicly on matters affecting society or country?
- Does public opinion matter in the judging and judgment-making process?
- Are Judges not susceptible to being influenced by what they read, see or hear in the media in their judging and judgment-making process?
- To what extent does a Judge’s Life experience and socio-economic & political background influence or determine his/her approach in a case?
- Isn’t there a danger in appointing a sitting judge to chair Commission of Inquiry?
In Conversation with Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo – 2nd segment
In this segment, South Africa’s Deputy Chief Justice, Justice Raymond Zondo, discusses matters of substantive law.
Some of the issues covered include
- the so-called “reasonable employer test” as a standard of review in unfair dismissal cases
- the day in the life of a Constitutional Court Justice
Also discussed is why legal representation in Constitutional Court litigation is dominated by white male advocates when almost all cases that go before the Constitutional Court involve government in one form or another.
In Conversation with Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo – 1st segment
Meet South Africa’s Deputy Chief Justice who currently chairs the fraught “State Capture” Commission also known, eponymously, as The Zondo Commission.
In this first segment, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo literally unveils himself.
Did you know that Justice Zondo has a specialist university qualification (Master of Laws or LLM) in Patent Law, has written a judgment in Patent Law as a Judge of the High Court, but has never received a single brief in Patent Law while in practice? Find out why here – and more …
#BlameMeOnApartheid: Colonialism, Apartheid and the legacy of townships as peripheral spaces for ‘non-beings’ – A Book by Thamsanqa D. Malinga
The telling of too many of our stories as black South Africans is often done by people who have not experienced the life we have lived, and the avoidable difficulties to which we have been subjected.
Even the stories of Nelson Mandela (South Africa’s first President under the first universal franchise), Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (his wife and a fiery socio-political activist in her own right dubbed “Mother of the Nation”) and Steven Bantu Biko (leader of the Students’ movement in the 1960s and 1970s and a Black Consciousness Movement advocate and leader) have been told largely by people who have not walked one mile in their shoes. And so in all three cases, the lack of authenticity is palpable.
#BlameMeOnApartheid is a welcome departure from that mould. Mr Thamsanqa D. Malinga, a child of South Africa’s townships, tells his own story from his own perspective and in his own words. No interpretation required. Even this review does not seek to water down the substance of the book by interpreting it for you. It simply seeks to pay tribute to a project well-executed.
Read the full review here #BlameMeOnApartheid – A Book by Thamsanqa D Malinga
Book Orders at masefakobook@gmail.com
In Conversation with Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga of the Constitutional Court – 5th segment
In this segment, we explore Transformation & related matters in the Legal Profession, particularly the dearth of black and women Counsel in the Constitutional Court appearing as Counsel and arguing cases. What is the reason for this?
Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga of the Constitutional Court of South Africa discusses this and other matters with us, including
- in what instances the Constitutional Court would reconsider its own earlier judgment
- in what way, if any, Judges are influenced by media reports.
The Zondo Commission Regulations Amendment: A Looming Constitutional Crisis? By Adv Gcina Malindi SC, Pan African Bar Association of South Africa
On 28 July 2020, the President of the Republic of South Africa gazetted some amendments to the Regulations of the Zondo Commission.
These amendments include enabling the National Prosecuting Authority to access information that has been gathered by investigators of the Zondo Commission, during the course of their employment by the Zondo Commission, and using that information in criminal proceedings against persons implicated by that information in criminal conduct.
Adv Malindi SC explores the constitutional challenges that these amendments pose. For example, if a witness called to give evidence at the Zondo Commission at a time when s/he is facing criminal prosecution, what implications does that have on the right against self-incrimination, among other rights of an accused person, if the Zondo Commission compels the person facing such criminal prosecution nevertheless to give evidence before it?
Read the full paper here Zondo Commission and Criminal Prosecution
In Conversation with Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga of the Constitutional Court – 4th segment
In this segment, we explore the Process of Judging, and the “subconscious bias” that each Judge inevitably brings to bear on his/her judging process.
Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga of the Constitutional Court of South Africa helps us make sense of the “subconscious bias” with which Judges approach their judging.
Does Judicial Diversity mean there is space in the South African Judiciary for bigoted, racist, sexist, homophobic judges for the sake of judicial diversity?
In Conversation with Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga of the Constitutional Court – 3rd segment
What is the “politics” that inform the dismissal of Applications for Leave to Appeal in the Constitutional Court without a hearing and without a reasoned judgment?
How many of the cases that go to the Constitutional Court are in fact heard in open court and why?
To whom do Judges account and how?
In this third segment, Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga of the Constitutional Court of South Africa talks to us on these and other burning issues.