Cape Town — South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has moved to end a political battle which has threatened to damage the country's judiciary and its independence by making an early announcement of the nomination of a relatively uncontroversial candidate to be the next chief justice.
Zuma told the National Press Club in Pretoria on Thursday that his choice for the post was Justice Sandile Ngcobo, who is already a member of the Constitutional Court, South Africa's highest court.
Trained in South Africa and the United States, Ngcobo has served in a wide range of roles in South Africa's courts as a prosecutor, a lawyer in private practice and a judge.
He was a member of the amnesty committee of the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission and has acted as a teaching associate and a visiting professor in South African and American universities. He was a Fulbright Scholar and holds a Master of Laws degree from Harvard University.
Zuma's unexpected announcement came as supporters of the head of the high court in the Western Cape, Justice John Hlophe, were waging an intensely political campaign for his appointment.
Hlophe has been mired in controversy, most seriously on ethics charges. He once gave permission to a company from which he had received payments for other services to sue a fellow judge.
He is currently being investigated by South Africa's Judicial Service Commission over allegations that he tried to persuade two judges of the Constitutional Court – of which he is not a member – to rule in favour of President Zuma in a corruption case brought against Zuma before he took office. The court ruled against Zuma but prosecutors later dropped the charges.
In an indication of how strongly the judicial establishment felt about Hlophe's candidacy, a former chief justice and defence lawyer for Nelson Mandela, Justice Arthur Chaskalson, came out publicly against Hlophe.
Until Zuma's ascent to power, the leading candidate for the post of chief justice appeared to be the deputy chief justice, Dikgang Moseneke.
However, press speculation has suggested that Moseneke's strongly-expressed political independence – and his membership in the Pan Africanist Congress, which opposed the now-ruling African National Congress (ANC) during South Africa's liberation struggle – counted against him. Moseneke was arrested at the age of 15 for anti-apartheid activities and earned his first law degrees while serving a 10-year prison sentence on Robben Island off Cape Town.
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Sello S. Alcock, the legal correspondent for Johannesburg's Mail & Guardian newspaper, reported last month that Ngcobo was the leading candidate for chief justice.
"Ever since the ANC launched a series of attacks on... Moseneke," Alcock wrote, "judges and legal commentators have privately suggested that Ngcobo is the most credible of the candidates who are politically palatable to... President Zuma and the ANC."
Announcing Ngcobo's nomination on Thursday, Zuma said he had initiated consultations - required by the Constitution - with the Judicial Service Commission and leaders of parties represented in the National Assembly.
"Justice Ngcobo's credentials speak for themselves," Zuma said. "A graduate of the universities of Zululand, Natal, Georgetown Law Centre and Harvard, he will bring a wealth of experience to the task of heading the highest court in the land."
Ngcobo has been nominated to replace Justice Pius Langa, the retiring chief justice, who was a prominent lawyer in the fight against apartheid and a respected jurist.
