Ep #9: "Where the Judge is Imam" w/ Mbekezeli Benjamin and Bhavna Ramji

Just Us Under a Tree

Elisha, Johan and Dan are joined by Mbekezeli Benjamin of Judges Matter to update you on judicial governance under lockdown, including the relationship between the Office of the Chief Justice and the Department of Justice. We bring to your attention the Chief Justice’s special Easter service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCvGzvH5zhQ. We then focus on the role of law in the Covid lockdown. Dan covers the appointment of former ConCourt Justice Kate O’Regan as COVID-19 designate judge to oversee the government’s information-gathering for a contact-tracing database. We then provide an overview of some of the legal challenges to the state’s lockdown measures. These include the threatened challenge to the liquor ban, Afriforum and Solidarity’s challenge of affirmative action provisions on the tourism fund, lawyers having trouble with permits to travel and appear in court, a challenge to the closure of mosques without exception, the sale of baby clothes, the regulation of police and military misconduct, and Durban and Cape Town’s efforts to demolish informal settlements. Bhavna Ramji of the Casual Workers Advice Office makes an appearance to explain their successful effort to compel employers to apply to the Disaster Fund set up to supplement the government’s Unemployment Insurance Fund on behalf of their employees. Mbekezeli then helps us all unpack the many controversies and conflicts in the governance of Western Cape High Court since Deputy Judge President Goliath filed a JSC complaint against Judge President John Hlophe. We also unpack a shadowy paragraph of DJP Goliath’s complaint and questions it raises about judicial appointments and transformation. We end by briefly discussing Justice Edwin Cameron’s appointment as Chief Judge of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services and why this is so important in the era of Covid-19. Edwin Cameron’s fight for humane prisons: https://www.newframe.com/edwin-camerons-fight-for-humane-prisons/. Final mix and master by Daniel Basckin. Outro music: ‘Monday Jam’ performed by Daniel Basckin, Jude Kenrick and Dominic Hurd (feat Zehir Omar).