Cape Town - After a day of interviews, the Judicial Service Commission(JSC) last night resolved to fill four vacancies for on the Western Cape Division of the High Court.
Yesterday nine candidates were interviewed to fill the vacancies.
But by the evening, the JSC had resolved to elevate Advocate Melanie Holderness, Mas-udah Pangarker and Nonthuthuzelo Ralarala to the Bench.
During her interview, Holderness who practises as advocate of the Cape Bar, having taken up chambers in 2004, was grilled on her commitment to transformation.
Prior to joining the Cape Bar, she completed her articles of clerkship at STBB (1998-1999) and practised as an attorney at STBB until 2000.
She went back to university to obtain her MBA, which she obtained from UCT in 2002, whereafter she worked for a year as a management consultant at KPMG Consulting.
When asked by the commission what she had done for transformation in the judiciary, she responded that: “I've been passionate, not in a formal capacity, but certainly in promoting black females at the Bar, a number of which I know and I’m friendly with so an example would be, and perhaps this, this doesn’t raise to the bar that you’ve set, but whilst I've been acting, and then once I'm off the bench, I will say so.”
Pearl Andrews, currently a regional magistrate in Durban, was first to take up the hot seat.
Having been appointed as a magistrate in 2019, Andrews started her legal career in 1992 as a candidate attorney, and after being admitted, she practised until 2002.
During the interview, Andrews assured the commission that her growth spurt in the judiciary has been phenomenal.
“As you mature in judicial maturity, your approach and my approach has been so different. I have embraced the new opportunity with every fiber of my being and I have invested lots of time.
“I am very, very committed, and no matter what was assigned to me was too much.” Andrews told the commission.
Advocate Penelope Magona-Dano who is a practising advocate, having been at the Cape Bar since 2009, and having previously been a State Prosecutor (1999 to 2007).
She has served 14 terms as an acting Judge of the Western Cape High Court, since 2015, and has served as a Commissioner for the Small Claims Court at the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court since 2014.
She is also heavily involved in various community development organisations and legal associations.
Some of the candidates who were interviewed by the JSC yesterday included DR Jacobus Moses, Rehana Parker and Advocate Phillipa Van Zyl.
Cape Argus