Will it be third time lucky for Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg judge High Court Judge Leicester Adams, the sole candidate for Tuesday's Judicial Service Commission (JSC) interview to fill the vacant position at the Electoral Court?
Following a fairly short interview, the panel and deliberations by the panel, the JSC has resolved to recommend him as a permanent judge for this position. The final decision will ultimately lie with President Cyril Ramaphosa who will consider the recommendations.
Judge Adams had been acting at this court during last year’s elections, but he was twice in the past overlooked for a permanent position at the Electoral Court.
Facing several questions from Chief Justice Mandisa Maya during Tuesday's interview, as well as questions from other panelists, Judge Adams appeared keen to take on the position.
Online judge’s watchgroup Judges Matter commented on today’s interview for this position that the ailing Electoral Court has had to navigate the highly contested 2024 elections with only two permanent judges out of five judges and other members. This placed enormous strain on the court.
The JSC is therefore under pressure to fill vacancies ahead of the 2026 local government elections, it said.
Judge Adams described the workload at this court while he was in an acting capacity during the national elections as being hectic, but he said they were able to issue judgments within a week or two after hearing a matter.
He said while acting as a judge of the Electoral Court, he managed to write five or six judgments himself. Minister of Justice Mamoloko Kubay questioned Adams on his view regarding the modernisation of the voting system by introducing a digital voting system in future. She pointed out that while some welcomed this, others were concerned with issues such as online voter tampering and cybercrime.
Judge Adams responded that he thinks it is inevitable at some point and while there are advantages to this, one must be aware of the risks. He, however, believed that the IEC system was fit for its purpose. He was also questioned regarding his views about the signature threshold for independent candidates to be registered on the votes roll and the issues surrounding it.
Judge Adams explained that the Constitutional Court had resolved that the independent candidates only needed 1 000 votes for the region in which they planned to stand. This was followed up by a question posed by Julius Malema as to how our electoral system can verify these signatures.
Judge Adams referred to the Liebenberg judgment and said the commission has systems in place to verify ID numbers. If it cannot be verified, the vote is thrown out. It also has a way to verify residential home addresses and the system can cipher out fake signatures, he said. These mechanisms are not foolproof, but it's a start, he said.
Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo, who in the past has expressed his concern over the heavy case loads and backlogs of this division, jokingly asked Judge Adams whether the court could use AI judges to write judgments. “I don’t want a comment,” a laughing Judge Mlambo said.
The JSC is meanwhile also set on hearing the interviews of four candidates to the positions of Labour Court judges - one post in Cape Town and two in Johannesburg. Judges Matter in this regard said the Labour Court is also under severe strain because of large case backlogs and too few judges (only 13 to serve all 62 million South Africans). Several vacancies have arisen due to retirements and promotions of some senior judges.