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Judge Maya urges JSC to commit to ensuring gender transformation in the judiciary

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Supreme Court of Appeal President, Mandisa Maya has asked the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to ensure that gender transformation does not end with her.

Maya is currently being interviewed for the position of Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court. The position became vacant when Justice Raymond Zondo took the helm at the apex court earlier this year.

Maya has been a trailblazer in the industry, being the first woman to hold leadership roles in the judiciary. This is the second time this year that Maya is in front of the Commission.

Earlier this year, she was interviewed and nominated by the JSC for the position of Chief Justice. However, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Raymond Zondo to that role and nominated Maya for the position of deputy. Maya has urged the commission to commit to transforming the judiciary.

“SA has never had a woman in its highest echelon in the legal. I’m the furthest as the President of SCA that women have had to smell to lead like male counterparts. The JSC has the opportunity to endorse so women are pushed. Once that is done, ensure my successor at the SCA will be another female,” says Maya.

She’s a pioneer in the legal field and was one of the first women judges in the Eastern Cape High Court. She was also the first black woman in the Supreme Court of Appeal and the first woman Deputy President of that court, and later its President.

This was one of her responses when she was interviewed for the SCA position in 2017.

“How do we get more women in the system? I think we would have been able to identify where the real problem lies by now. We have all identified that there is no shortage of young women law graduates who leave our institutions every year. There is no shortage of young women lawyers who join the profession to do articles of clerkship, to serve pupilage, but something happens once they get into the professions to practice and they fall through the cracks, and that is where we should be looking.”

VIDEO: JSC Interview – Justice Mandisa Maya – PT2

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