BL Premium reports that on Wednesday the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) held its interview for the long-vacated position of deputy judge president of the Labour Court (LC) and Labour Appeal Court (LAC).

Johannesburg high court judge Edwin Molahlehi was the only candidate interviewed for the position that has not been filled for seven years. Molahlehi has acted as deputy president since March and served as a LC judge for 10 years. He has been a high court judge since 2017. Though he trained to be an attorney, he never practised as either an attorney or advocate. Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who himself was president of the LC and LAC in the 2000s during Molahlehi’s time, noted that Molahlehi was “very involved in labour disputes”, as mediator and arbitrator in the 1990s. Molahlehi then served as a national director at the CCMA from 2001. Zondo asked Molahlehi to identify issues plaguing the LC and what could be done to address those concerns. Molahlehi noted major issues with facilities. The LC sits in four locations, namely Cape Town, Durban, Gqeberha and Johannesburg. Molahlehi said that while the first three had somewhat acceptable facilities, the actual facilities for the Johannesburg node of the LC, situated in Braamfontein, were “very congested” and required at least another floor. He also highlighted a huge backlog of cases. Another issue Molahlehi identified was that there were only 13 LC judges for the entire country. He said this is far “below” what was needed.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tauriq Moosa at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

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