The pioneering Land Court and Land Court of Appeal and its new leadership will this year shape the future of land governance and reform in South Africa.

Listen to this article 10 min Listen to this article 10 min During her cooking-with-gas interview with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for the position of deputy judge president of the new Land Court in October 2024, Judge Susannah Cowen SC didn't mention her grandmother, the international literary trailblazer and Nobel Prize winner, Doris Lessing.

Cowen - daughter of Jean Cowen (one of Lessing's three children) and sister to Anna, an architect and social change practitioner - follows in the footsteps of her famous grandmother who during her long life challenged the literary, political and social status quo and particularly the role of women in society.

The illustrious matrilineal history of the family runs quietly but deeply and highly effectively when it comes to Judge Cowen.

Take, for example, the approach to questions by commissioner Julius Malema at the JSC interview.

Malema's by now classic and predictable entry point to any discussion is to get personal, even mildly so, and see what it provokes. It is a pretty good tool for testing maturity even though it is an immature approach in itself.

The optics here are also historic. The fiery leader of a self-proclaimed far-left political party with a penchant...