The deputy chief justice of South Africa, Mandisa Maya, has been promoted to chief justice, making her the first woman to earn that position in the country. Maya was selected as the nation’s most senior judge by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
She will succeed Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who is stepping down as the head of the highest court. Her tenure is set to begin in September.
The Judicial Services Commission interviewed Maya in May after Ramaphosa nominated her for chief justice in February. Her selection “would be a significant milestone for the country,” according to the commission’s recommendation, which Ramaphosa acknowledged in a statement.
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The statement, posted on X also read, “The Commission subsequently assured the President of Justice Maya’s suitability to lead the judiciary in the country based on the interview, Justice Maya’s qualifications and judicial record, her leadership qualities, her experience as a judge in various courts, her past leadership of the Supreme Court of Appeal and her role as Deputy Chief Justice in the period leading to her nomination by the President.”
“President Ramaphosa appreciates the confidence expressed by the Judicial Service Commission and leaders of political parties in the suitability of the incoming Chief Justice, who can draw inspiration and support from the confidence expressed in her.”
Before her appointment to the apex Constitutional Court, Africa News reports that the 60-year-old trailblazer held the position of judge president at the Supreme Court of Appeal, which is the second-highest court in South Africa.
She was the first Black woman appointed as a judge at the Supreme Court of Appeal and the first female deputy president and president of the same court.
Maya was raised in a remote area of the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. In 1989, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in law at Duke University in the United States, which was an unusual accomplishment for a young Black woman during South Africa’s apartheid era.
In a 2017 interview, she revealed that while she had originally planned to pursue medicine, she changed her mind after reading a medical textbook on her first day of college in South Africa and decided to study law.
Maya will be the eighth chief judge since South Africa became a democracy in 1994 when the apartheid system of white minority rule ended.
Since the position was established in 1910, when South Africa was still a British colony, the chief judges have always been men, thus, Maya’s appointment marks a significant milestone for the country.
