Nonkosi Mhlantla | |
---|---|
Justice of the Constitutional Court | |
Assumed office 1 December 2015 (Acting: January 2013 – December 2013) | |
Appointed by | Jacob Zuma |
Preceded by | Thembile Skweyiya |
Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal | |
In office 1 December 2008 –30 November 2015 | |
Appointed by | Kgalema Motlanthe |
Judge of the High Court | |
In office 1 June 2002 –30 November 2008 | |
Appointed by | Thabo Mbeki |
Division | Eastern Cape |
Personal details | |
Born | Nonkosi Zoliswa Mhlantla 2 May 1964 Port Elizabeth,South Africa |
Alma mater | University of the North |
Nonkosi Zoliswa Mhlantla (born 2 May 1964) is a South African judge of the Constitutional Court. Elevated to that court in December 2015,she was formerly a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal between December 2008 and November 2015. She entered legal practice as an attorney in her hometown,Port Elizabeth,and joined the bench in June 2002,becoming the first woman ever to be appointed to the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa.
Mhlantla was born on 2 May 1964 in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. [1] She grew up in the Port Elizabeth townships of KwaZakhele and New Brighton. [2] In 1982, [2] she matriculated at Kenneth Masekela High School in KwaThema,a township outside Springs in the former Transvaal,and she went on to the University of the North,where she completed a BProc in 1987. [1]
Between 1990 and 2002,she practised as an attorney in Port Elizabeth,running her own firm named N. Mhlantla &Associates. [1] As a junior attorney,she handled some criminal matters,including Apartheid-era political trials,but she focused primarily on civil,labour,and arbitration matters. [2] [3] During this period,she served briefly as an acting judge in the High Court of South Africa,filling a vacancy in the Eastern Cape Division between April and September 2000; [1] she also served as a commissioner in Small Claims Court. [3]
Mhlantla was appointed permanently to the Eastern Cape High Court on 1 June 2002. [1] She was the first woman to be appointed to that bench in its 138-year history. [2] Towards the end of her six-year tenure in the High Court,from June 2007 to November 2008,she was seconded as an acting judge to the Supreme Court of Appeal. [1]
In August 2008,Mhlantla was shortlisted as one of several candidates to fill one of two permanent vacancies in the Supreme Court of Appeal. [4] She was appointed by President Kgalema Motlanthe later that year. [5] Throughout 2013,she served as an acting judge in the Constitutional Court of South Africa, [3] [6] during absences by Justice Edwin Cameron,Justice Johann van der Westhuizen,and Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng. [7] [8] During that period,she wrote several majority judgements for the Constitutional Court.
In June 2015,the Judicial Service Commission announced that Mhlantla was one of four candidates who had been shortlisted for possible appointment to fill a permanent vacancy on the Constitutional Court. [9] The seat had formerly belonged to retired Justice Thembile Skweyiya,and commentators had criticised the delay in appointing Skweyiya's replacement. [10] The other candidates were also women –Dhaya Pillay,Leona Theron,and Zukisa Tshiqi –but Mhantla was the most experienced among them. [11] [6] She was nominated to the position by the National Association for Democratic Lawyers,of which was a founding member,and she was viewed as "a safe choice on the constitutional interpretation front",given her record of moderate judgements. [6] Her interview took place in July in Johannesburg. [12]
On 9 November 2015,President Jacob Zuma announced that he would appoint Mhlantla to the Constitutional Court bench,with effect from 1 December. [1] [13] When Justice Sisi Khampepe retired in 2021,she became the longest-serving woman in the Constitutional Court. [14]
Mhlantla is a single mother to an adult daughter. [3]
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.
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.
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.
Christopher Nyaole Jafta is a retired South African judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from October 2009 to October 2021. Formerly an academic and practising advocate in the Transkei,he joined the bench in November 1999 as a judge of the Transkei Division. Thereafter he served in the Supreme Court of Appeal from November 2004 to October 2009.
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.
Zukisa Laura Lumka Tshiqi is a South African judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. She formerly served in the Supreme Court of Appeal from December 2009 until October 2019,when President Cyril Ramaphosa elevated her to the Constitutional Court. She was a practising attorney until she was first appointed to the bench in the Gauteng High Court in 2005.
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.
Leona Valerie Theron is a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Before her elevation in July 2017,she served in the Supreme Court of Appeal between December 2010 and June 2017. She is the first Coloured judge to serve in the Constitutional Court.
Mandisa Muriel Lindelwa Maya is the Chief Justice of South Africa. She was formerly the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2017 to 2022 before she was elevated to the position of Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa in September 2022. She joined the bench in May 2000 as a judge of the Transkei Division of the High Court of South Africa and was elevated to the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2006.
Xola Mlungisi Petse is a retired South African judge who was the Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Appeal between 2019 and 2024. A former attorney,he joined the Supreme Court as a puisne judge in June 2012. Before that,he was a judge of the Eastern Cape High Court from July 2005 to May 2012.
Rammaka Steven Mathopo is a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Before his elevation to that court in January 2022,he served in the Supreme Court of Appeal between June 2015 and December 2021. He was formerly a judge of the Gauteng High Court from January 2006 to May 2015,and he practised as an attorney for 17 years before then.
Owen Lloyd Rogers is a South African judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Before his appointment to that court in August 2022,he served in the Western Cape Division of the High Court for nine years,having joined the bench in February 2013. Formerly an advocate and senior counsel at the Cape Bar,he was also a judge of the Competition Appeal Court between 2016 and 2022.
Mahube Betty Molemela is a South African judge who has been the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal since 1 June 2023. Before her appointment to the Supreme Court in June 2018,she was the first woman Judge President of the Free State High Court from 2015 to 2018. A former attorney,she was appointed to the bench in the Free State in July 2008.
Dumisani Hamilton Zondi is a South African judge who is the Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Appeal. He was appointed as the chairperson of the Electoral Court in December 2022. Before his elevation to the Supreme Court in June 2014,he served in the Western Cape High Court between 2007 and 2014,as well as in the Competition Appeal Court between 2011 and 2014. He entered legal practice as an attorney in 1986.
Petrus Arnolus Koen is South African judge who is currently serving in the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court of South Africa. Before joining the bench in November 2006,he was Senior Counsel in Pietermaritzburg. He is best known for presiding in the corruption trial of former president Jacob Zuma from May 2021 until he recused himself in January 2023.
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.