Faultlines of patriarchy in SA's judiciary laid bare for all to see

When those entrusted with overseeing justice indulge in the language of patriarchy, they betray both law and conscience.

- Andy Kawa

There are moments when disappointment cuts deeper than outrage, when those we regard as the stewards of justice, intellect and moral clarity reveal how comfortably they still inhabit the language of patriarchy.

Such a moment came when retired Judge Bernard Ngoepe compared “women’s power” to a key for a Mercedes-Benz and Donald Trump, and advocate Muzi Sikhakhane dismissed gender-based violence arguments as filtered through “feminist, Western, culturally superior, subjective high-horse” thinking.

These are not harmless musings. They expose the faultlines in how power and gender are still imagined in South Africa’s judiciary and the Bar, where the language of justice is often polished but its imagination remains profoundly patriarchal.