South Africa has appointed its first female chief justice to head the country’s judiciary.
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday, named Mandisa Maya, currently serving as the deputy chief justice, to be the country’s next chief justice. Maya’s tenure will commence on September 1, following the retirement of Chief Justice Raymond Zondo from the Constitutional Court.
PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA APPOINTS JUSTICE MANDISA MAYA AS CHIEF JUSTICE
President @CyrilRamaphosa has, in terms of Section 174(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, appointed current Deputy Chief Justice Mandisa Maya as Chief Justice of the Republic of South… pic.twitter.com/DscvsN3S5O
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— The Presidency 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) July 25, 2024
At 60 years old, Maya previously held the position of judge president at the Supreme Court of Appeal, South Africa’s second-highest court. She made history as the first Black woman to become a judge on this court and subsequently served as both its deputy president and president.
Ramaphosa nominated Maya for the role of chief justice in February, and she underwent an interview with the Judicial Services Commission in May. The commission endorsed her appointment, highlighting it as a “significant milestone for the country,” as noted by Ramaphosa in a public statement.
Maya’s background is rooted in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, where she grew up in a rural community. In 1989, she received a Fulbright Scholarship, which enabled her to pursue a Master’s degree in law at Duke University in the United States—an exceptional achievement for a young Black woman during South Africa’s apartheid era.
In a 2017 interview, Maya revealed that she initially planned to study medicine but changed her course to law on her first day at university in South Africa after reviewing a medical textbook.
Since the establishment of the chief justice position in 1910, Maya will be the first woman to hold the role. She will become the eighth chief justice since the end of apartheid and the establishment of democratic governance in South Africa in 1994.
