TONY LEON: Country’s top lawyers given short shrift in judicial appointments
The birth defect of being white cancels out the best record in the struggle against apartheid or defending ANC politicians in court
SA leads the world’s constitutional democracies in its supply of judicial talent. That is the rational explanation for the decision-making processes applied by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), the body entrusted by the constitution with recommending candidates for appointment to the various divisions of our courts.
How else to explain its recent decision to decline to even shortlist two of the most acclaimed jurists in the country, judges Owen Rogers and David Unterhalter, for appointments to the two highest adjudication bodies in the land, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) and the Constitutional Court respectively?..
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