DURBAN – Women are still underrepresented in the South African Judiciary system, according to acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who presented the annual judiciary report on Tuesday via a live-stream.
The report, which measured the judiciary’s performance indicators and targets of functions and mandates between April 2020 and March 2021, found that out of 234 judges and out of 1 726 magistrates, 49% were women.
Eleven judges were discharged from their duties during the period in review, while 10 judges died. No new appointments were made during the period, as interviews could not be conducted because of Covid-19 health and safety regulations.
During the period in review, the Gauteng department of health recorded 23 226 teenage pregnancies, with 934 girls between the ages of 10 and 14. A total of 2 976 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 had a termination of pregnancy.
Justice Zondo said “the statistics raise disturbing questions about who the fathers of those babies are”, as some of those pregnancies would have occurred during the Covid-19 lockdown when the schools were closed.
“We have made substantial progress in the gender-transformation of the judiciary, but we have not reached the right level of representation of women in the judiciary.
“At the end of the reporting period in review, the establishment for judges comprised 234 judges in active service, 44% of those judges are women. The number of active magistrates in service is 1 726, 49% of which are women,” Justice Zondo said.
In light of the 934 new mothers between the ages of 10 and 14, Justice Zondo said: “Some of those pregnancies would have occurred during the lockdown, when these children of school-going age were at home. These statistics raise disturbing questions about who the fathers of those babies are and when and how these children fell pregnant.
“Until women and children can truly be free from all forms of violence that strip them of their dignity, their equality, their human worth and their freedoms, our democracy is not complete,” he said.
Political Bureau