Eastern Cape born Justice Mandisa Maya is the country’s new deputy chief justice, the Presidency announced on Monday morning.
Maya, who is currently the president of the Supreme Court of Appeal, will take up the post on September 1.
Maya was the only candidate interviewed for the post, which became vacant when President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Justice Raymond Zondo as chief justice.
In a statement, the Presidency said Maya brought more than two decades of distinguished career experience as a judicial officer.
“Justice Maya will contribute to the ongoing transformation process of the judiciary. Her ascendency to the apex court will serve as a beacon of hope for scores of young women and make them believe that South Africa is a country of possibilities regardless of gender, social or economic circumstances,” Ramaphosa said.
During her interview in June, Maya told the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) that South Africa had never had a woman in its highest echelons. She said she was the “furthest, as the president of the SCA, that women have come close to smelling what it is to actually just be in charge of your institution and be given an equal opportunity as your male counterparts to show your prowess, your skills”.
She said the JSC had an opportunity to endorse Ramaphosa’s nomination of her as deputy chief justice so that “women are pushed even higher in the rank of leadership in this institution”.
She said at the time:And once that is done, ensure that my successor, at the SCA, will be another woman so that we do not lose this momentum.
- Maya was initially recommended to Ramaphosa as chief justice by the JSC, following a colourful interviewing process. However, the president opted for Zondo to occupy the most senior judicial position in the country. Justice Mandisa Maya was born in Tsolo, Eastern Cape and grew up in King William’s Town and Mthatha where she matriculated from St John’s College.
She obtained the following degrees: BProc from the University of the Transkei (now Walter Sisulu University), 1986; LLB from the University of Natal, Durban, 1988; and She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study LLM (Labour Law – Alternative Dispute Resolution and Constitutional Law) from Duke University School of Law, United States of America, 1990.
