The Constitutional Court of South Africa is a supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa,and is the apex court in the South African judicial system,with general jurisdiction.
Edwin Cameron is a retired judge who served as a Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He is well known for his HIV/AIDS and gay-rights activism and was hailed by Nelson Mandela as "one of South Africa's new heroes". President Ramaphosa appointed him as Inspecting Judge of Correctional Services from 1 January 2020 and in October 2019 he was elected Chancellor of Stellenbosch University.
Sandile Ngcobo is a retired South African judge who was the Chief Justice of South Africa from October 2009 to August 2011. He served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from August 1999 until his retirement in August 2011. Before that,he was a judge of the Cape Provincial Division and the Labour Appeal Court.
Baaitse Elizabeth "Bess" Nkabinde-Mmono is a South African retired judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from January 2006 to December 2017. During that time,she was acting Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa from 23 May 2016 to 7 June 2017. She joined the bench in November 1999 as a judge of the Bophuthatswana Provincial Division.
Catherine "Kate" O'Regan is a former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. From 2013 to 2014 she was a commissioner of the Khayelitsha Commission and is now the inaugural director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford.
Thembile Lewis Skweyiya was a South African lawyer and judge who served on the Constitutional Court of South Africa between February 2004 and May 2014. He rose to prominence as a civil rights lawyer during apartheid and he served three years in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court before his elevation to the Constitutional Court.
Pius Nkonzo LangaSCOB was Chief Justice of South Africa from June 2005 to October 2009. Formerly a human rights lawyer,he was appointed as a puisne judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa upon its inception in 1995. He was the Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa from November 2001 until May 2005,when President Thabo Mbeki elevated him to the Chief Justiceship. He was South Africa's first black African Chief Justice.
The Judicial Service Commission is a body specially constituted by the South African Constitution to recommend persons for appointment to the judiciary of South Africa.
Mogoeng Thomas Reetsang Mogoeng is a South African jurist who served as the Chief Justice of South Africa from 8 September 2011 until his retirement on 11 October 2021.
Sisi Virginia Khampepe is a retired South African judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa between October 2009 and October 2021. Formerly a prominent labour lawyer,she joined the bench in December 2000 as a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division. She was also a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Raymond Mnyamezeli Mlungisi "Ray" Zondo is a South African judge who is currently serving as Chief Justice of South Africa since 2022. President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Zondo as South Africa's new chief justice with effect from 1 April 2022. He served as acting Chief Justice from 11 October 2021,when Mogoeng Mogoeng retired,until 31 March 2022.
Mbuyiseli Russel Madlanga is a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He joined the bench on 1 August 2013 on the appointment of President Jacob Zuma. Formerly an advocate in the Eastern Cape,he first served as a judge in the Transkei Division between 1996 and 2001.
The South African judiciary has broad powers of judicial review under the Constitution of South Africa. Courts are empowered to pronounce on the legality and constitutionality of exercises of public power,including administrative action,executive action,and the passage of acts of Parliament. Though informed by the common law principles that guided judicial review during the apartheid era,contemporary judicial review is authorised by and grounded in constitutional principles. In the case of administrative action,it is also codified in the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act,2000.
Steven Arnold Majiedt is a South African judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He joined the Constitutional Court in October 2019 as an appointee of President Cyril Ramaphosa. Formerly a practicing advocate,he served in the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2010 to 2019 and in the Northern Cape High Court from 2000 to 2010.
Annali Christelle Basson is a South African judge of the High Court of South Africa. She was appointed to the Gauteng Division in January 2016 after serving in the Labour Court from 2007 to 2016. Before her appointment to the bench,she was a legal academic at the University of South Africa,where she specialised in labour law and mercantile law. She was an acting judge in the Constitutional Court in 2018 and was shortlisted for permanent appointment to that court in 2019.
Masetlha v President of the Republic of South Africa and Another is an important decision in the Constitutional Court of South Africa which held that procedural fairness was not a ground for the review of executive action. Upholding President Thabo Mbeki's decision to dismiss Billy Masetlha as the head of the National Intelligence Agency,a majority of the court held that,unlike legality and rationality,procedural fairness was not a requirement for the lawful exercise of the President's powers of appointment and dismissal,the exercise of which constituted executive rather than administrative action. The matter was heard on 10 May 2007 and decided on 3 October 2007,with Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke writing for the majority.
Paulsen and Another v Slip Knot Investments 777 (Pty) Limited is a decision of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. In a judgment delivered on 24 March 2015,a majority of the court overturned the Supreme Court of Appeal's decision in Standard Bank v Oneanate,which had established a pendente lite exception to the in duplum rule.
Glenister v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others,often known as Glenister II,is a 2011 decision of the Constitutional Court of South Africa,in which the court held that the state is constitutionally obligated to establish and maintain an independent agency to combat corruption. It ruled that the Hawks were not sufficiently independent to fulfil this obligation and that the statutory provisions that created the Hawks were therefore,and to that extent,constitutionally invalid. The case was part of a series of litigation that sought to challenge the disbanding of the Scorpions.
