Top court’s lack of woman judges reflects gender bias
Our highest court has failed to uphold the feminist purpose of the Constitution in cases dealing with gender and rights of women
THE Judicial Service Commission (JSC) will interview four candidates for judicial appointment to the Constitutional Court this week. Like six of the nine permanent members of the court, all four are men. This is despite the JSC’s constitutional obligation to ensure that "the need for the judiciary to reflect broadly the racial and gender composition of the country must be considered". The JSC’s "transformation agenda" must be understood in the context of what is, on its face, SA’s feminist Constitution. The Constitution is at its core a transformative document that aspires to a fundamentally different society — a new order based on social justice and fundamental human rights. It is not merely rhetorically committed to equality. It requires state institutions to turn the aspirations of the Constitution into the lived realities of those it claims to protect. It recognises the importance of not only equality between women and men, but the elimination of the patriarchal social structure...
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