26 Jul 2011Idasa’s Political Information & Monitoring Service (PIMS) has made a submission to parliament noting that President Zuma’s invitation to Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, head of the Constitutional Court, to extend ...

15 Jul 2009Idasa made a submission to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development requesting that the draft State Liability Bill and the draft Constitution 18th Amendment Bill be reconsidered.  Last year, ...

08 Jul 2009By:  Shameela Seedat What should we expect of our judges? In South Africa, this fundamental question has proved to be a difficult and divisive one. In October of last year, ...

05 Jun 2009By Shameela Seedat Discuss this on our blog here. When the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) meets later this year to consider who will replace four titans of the Constitutional Court ...

02 Apr 2009By: Shameela Seedat The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is the official body in South Africa charged with the responsibility of appointing judges and investigating complaints of misconduct against judges. The ...

24 Jul 2008By Shameela Seedat When the Constitutional Court was formed in 1994, it was celebrated not only as an important player in the creation of shared values within a deeply polarised ...

22 Jul 2008In response to the Judicial Services Commission (JSC)’s call for submissions in the above matter, Idasa’s Political Information and Monitoring Service and The Democratic Governance and Rights Unit at UCT’s ...

23 Jun 2008By Shameela Seedat This brief looks at a number of issues arising from the Constitutional Court complaint against Judge Hlophe, including the existing rules on judicial ethics, the workings of ...

12 May 2008By: Shameela Seedat The sustainability of constitutional democracy in South Africa largely depends on the dynamism of its public institutions. These include Parliament, courts and the ‘chapter nine institutions’ mandated ...

20 Jul 2007By Shameela Seedat and Judith February News of a potential conflict of interest involving Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe and the Oasis Group first surfaced in March last year. ...

29 Mar 2007By Shameela Seedat South Africa is for the first time contemplating laws on judicial ethics and discipline, financial disclosure, judicial codes of conduct and training for judges. Issues of judicial ...

01 Feb 2007by Shameela Seedat   Over the years our courts have firmly maintained that their only guarantee of impartiality is "conspicuous impartiality".  When it recently emerged that Judge Hlophe, President of ...

26 Oct 2006By Shameela Seedat ON THE surface, the recent public debate over the judiciary appears to pit two opposing interpretations against each other: the first, that a school of reactionary judges ...

25 Aug 2006Over the last few years, there has been increasing concern that public participation in legislation and policy development in South Africa has declined. Critics maintain that this has weakened not ...

15 Jun 2006By Shameela Seedat With the deadline indefinitely extended, a number of organizations made submissions to Parliament on the Constitution Fourteenth Amendment Bill and the Superior Courts Bill. A common theme ...

25 May 2006By Shameela Seedat IDASA welcomes measures aimed at rationalizing the courts, and providing accessible and efficient justice.  However, certain clauses in the Constitution Fourteenth Amendment Bill, 2005 raise concerns. Read ...

12 May 2006By Judith February Somewhere there’s a photograph of Cyril Ramaphosa and Roelf Meyer sitting on a grand parliamentary stair-case taking a break during the Constitutional negotiations, ties loosened, seemingly relaxed. ...

02 May 2006By Judith February There can be no doubt that one of the over-riding themes as South Africa enters its second decade of democracy, is the often unhealthy intersection between money ...

30 Jan 2006By Shaamela Seedat One of the pillars on which our constitutional democracy rests is the separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and judiciary. This separation ensures that each ...

29 Jan 2006By Shameela Seedat One of the pillars on which our constitutional democracy rests is the separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and judiciary. This separation ensures that each ...

28 Oct 2005By Shaamela Seedat   The transformation of South Africa’s Judiciary is constitutionally prescribed, necessary and inevitable – what is important about transformation, however, is the form it takes. Since the ...

28 Jun 2005Shameela Seedat In early February, the Inter-Governmental Relations Framework Bill was introduced into Parliament, aimed at formalising the service delivery cooperation between national, provincial and local government. At present, co-operation ...

28 Jun 2005By Shameela Seedat   The transformation of South Africa’s Judiciary is constitutionally prescribed, necessary and inevitable. However, its importance lies is the form it takes. The structure of South African ...

22 Jun 2005Equality courts mark a new stage in the state’s commitment to equality and justice for all South Africans. Established under the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, ...

13 May 2005Debating the Transformation of the Judiciary: Rhetoric and Substance The transformation of South Africa’s judiciary is constitutionally prescribed, necessary and inevitable – what is important about transformation, however, is the ...

11 Apr 2005By: Shameela Seedat This article first appeared in the Cape Times on 11 April 2005. Two draft bills— the Judicial Services Commission Amendment Bill and Judicial Conduct Tribunal Bill — ...

27 Feb 2005This article was originally published on page 5 in Sunday Independent on February 27, 2005 By: Judith February In a sense South Africa is only now coming to grips with ...