Gcina Malindi SC - a Delmas triallist and former president of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers - is one of just two black senior counsel in years who have made themselves available for judicial appointment to the Gauteng High Court.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is seeking to fill six vacancies on the busiest divisions of the high court, in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Malindi, who was imprisoned for terrorism and sabotage as an activist for the United Democratic Front in the 1980s, was a longstanding member and branch chairman of the ANC.
He was on the national team of prosecutors appointed by the ANC to pursue misconduct charges against members.
During his interview, commissioner and DA member Hendrik Schmidt said he had never seen a questionnaire with so many references to the ANC and asked whether this would not give rise to a perception that Malindi would not be objective.
Malindi said he would be guided by the oath taken by judicial officers to apply the law equally without fear, favour or prejudice. He said former chief justice Pius Langa was an ANC member until the day he was appointed a judge. Former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke's political affiliation was also well known.
He said he had let his membership lapse in February, when he thought he might apply to serve his country in a different way.
But Malema suggested that a longer cooling off period would be appropriate. "Can you imagine what the headline is going to be: the JSC appointed the ANC national prosecutor as a high court judge. Is that going to help us?" he asked.
Malindi said the message his appointment would send out would be that the JSC had appointed someone "who, since the age of 16 had fought for freedom as an adherent of the Freedom Charter" and would champion "human rights, dignity and freedom and the other precepts in the Constitution" in the same way.
Judge President Dunstan Mlambo had earlier lamented the fact that so few black silks made themselves available for judicial appointment.
He said that in the six years he had been judge president of the labour court and the Gauteng division of the high court, Malindi and Takalani Madima SC - also interviewed on Wednesday - were the first black silks to come forward.
Source: Business Day
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