Chief Justice Mandisa Maya's year of balancing judicial independence and challenges

HEAVY DEMANDS

- ZELDA VENTER [e-mail]

A YEAR ago, Justice Mandisa Maya made history as South Africa's first female top judge, and overall, she has scored big wins, but the role’s heavy demands risk pulling her away from the court. The next nine years will be about finding balance.

This is according to Judges Matter, a transparency project that believes in the importance of judges.

As Justice Maya stepped into her role as Chief Justice on September 1 last year, Judges Matter took stock of what she had achieved during her first year in office.

The online group noted that she has recently introduced a revised sexual harassment policy for the judiciary and helped resolve a longstanding impasse over judicial independence.

However, progress has been slow in other areas, such as implementing the 2023 judges’ conference resolutions on reforming the judicial misconduct and restoring the credibility of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), it said.

According to Judges Matter, concerns have also been raised that the demands of her role are detracting from her primary judicial duties.