Judges Matter

Judges and the judgments they have made have increasingly become more central to politics in South Africa. The question of how we appoint our judges is therefore a very important one. How judges are appointed in South Africa matters to all South Africans. How judges are appointed to the bench matters. The quality of our judges is determined by the quality of the process we use to appoint judges. We believe that the way judges are appointed should be transparent, fair and accessible to all people in South Africa. A good appointments process leads to good judges on the bench and good judges make good judgments. Throughout the year Judges Matter monitors the JSC interview process through which our judges are chosen, we also monitor the judiciary and do research into judicial governance processes and other topics of public interest. This includes; monitoring judicial conduct tribunals, researching the appointment process for acting judges, interrogating the criteria the JSC uses to nominate candidates to the bench, examining the governance of the magistracy, investigating statistics regarding the judiciary, writing thought pieces and more. While the role of Judges Matter in the public space is constantly evolving, Judges Matter works hard to bring transparency to the JSC interviews and awareness of the judiciary to the public.