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Segopotje Mphahlele

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The Honourable
Segopotje Mphahlele
Judge President of the Mpumalanga High Court
Incumbent
Assumed office
2023
Appointed byCyril Ramaphosa
Preceded byFrans Legodi
Deputy Judge President of the Mpumalanga High Court
In office
2021–2023
Appointed byCyril Ramaphosa
PresidentFrans Legodi
Preceded byDivision established
Judge of the High Court
Incumbent
Assumed office
2019
Appointed byCyril Ramaphosa
DivisionMpumalanga
In office
2013–2019
Appointed byJacob Zuma
DivisionGauteng
Personal details
BornAugust 1968 (1968-08) (age 56)
Mamelodi, Pretoria
Transvaal, South Africa
Alma materUniversity of the North

Segopotje Sheila Mphahlele (born August 1968) is a South African judge who is currently serving as the Judge President of the Mpumalanga High Court. Formerly an attorney and insolvency practitioner, she has been a judge of the High Court of South Africa since December 2013.

Born in Pretoria, Mphahlele was appointed to the Gauteng Division of the High Court in 2013, but she transferred to the Mpumalanga Division when it was established in 2019. She was appointed as the division's inaugural Deputy Judge President in 2021 and became its first female Judge President in 2023, in both cases at the appointment of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Early life and education

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Mphahlele was born in August 1968 in Mamelodi outside Pretoria.[1] She attended the University of the North, where she completed a BProc in 1991 and an LLB in 1993.[1]

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She began her legal career in 1994 as a claims handler at the Road Accident Fund, and between 1995 and 1996, she served her articles of clerkship at Routledges in Johannesburg and Lephoko & Ledwaba Attorneys in Pretoria.[1] She was admitted as an attorney in June 1998, and in September 1999 she established her own legal practice, Mphahlele Attorneys, which she ran until 2013.[1] Her practice was generalist, traversing property law, employment law, commercial law, and estates, and it included litigation in the magistrates' courts and High Court of South Africa.[2]

During the same period, between 2000 and 2013, she was an insolvency practitioner, managing the insolvency practice at the Merithing Trust.[1] She also served on various regulatory bodies, including the Financial Services Board licensing committee, the Companies Tribunal, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission appeals tribunal, the Compensation Commission, and the Magistrates Commission.[1] She was Pretoria branch chairperson for the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, the deputy president of the Northern Provinces Law Society, and, from 2005, the first female chairperson of the Gauteng Law Council.[1][2]

Gauteng High Court: 2013–2019

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In October 2013, Mphahlele was one of six candidates whom the Judicial Service Commission shortlisted and interviewed for possible appointment to four judicial vacancies in the Gauteng Division of the High Court.[3][4] After her interview in Cape Town, the Judicial Service Commission recommended Mphahlele for appointment,[5] which President Jacob Zuma confirmed with effect from 2 December 2013.[6]

Sitting in Middelburg, Mpumalanga in 2017, Mphahlele presided in the coffin case, concerning an assault on a black man which received international coverage.[7] She convicted the two assailants of attempted murder, among other charges,[8][9] and, in a scathing ruling, sentenced both to lengthy prison sentences.[10][11] The sentences were welcomed by the South African government,[12] but they were cut short in 2019 when the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the attempted murder convictions in Oosthuizen v State.[13]

Mpumalanga High Court: 2019–present

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During her later years in the Gauteng High Court, Mphahlele was centrally involved in strengthening the High Court's circuit in Mpumalanga Province, and she transferred to the Mpumalanga Division when it was established in 2019; indeed, she served as acting Deputy Judge President in early 2019.[1] Later the same year, in Middelburg, she presided in the highly publicised murder trial of Zinhle Maditla, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for poisoning her four children.[14][15]

Deputy Judge Presidency

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In February 2021, Mphahlele and one other candidate, judge Shane Kgoele, were shortlisted for the position of Deputy Judge President of the Mpumalanga Division,[16] a position which had not been filled permanently since the court's inauguration.[1] During the interviews, held in April, Mphahlele was asked about the court's administrative challenges, as well as about her judgement in the coffin case, which was the only of her judgements which had been overturned on appeal.[1][17] Although Judge President Frans Legodi praised her temperament, the panel also pointed to a submission from the Mpumalanga Society of Advocates which complained about her treatment of counsel. Mphahlele responded that, "Their complaint was that I called them to order in court and not in private", which she did not to embarrass the counsel but to improve the efficiency of the court.[17]

Following the interviews, the Judicial Service Commission recommended Mphahlele for appointment,[17] and President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed her appointment with effect from 1 July 2021.[18]

Judge Presidency

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In April 2023, as the retirement of Judge President Legodi approached, Mphahlele and judge Brian Mashile were shortlisted as possible successors.[19] When the Judicial Service Commission interviewed Mphahlele that month, Legodi said that he had "started offloading" his leadership responsibilities onto her as "kind of a hand-over".[1] Much of the rest of the interview was consumed by discussion of challenges facing the division, including loadshedding and case backlogs; Mphahlele also proposed that mobile courts should be established to improve access to justice, and she openly urged Justice Minister Ronald Lamola to augment the division's financial resources.[1][19] One commissioner raised concern that Mphahlele had no reported judgements, given that judge presidents should provide "intellectual leadership" as well as administrative leadership.[1] Nonetheless, the commission recommended Mphahlele for appointment.[19]

In August 2023, she was elected as vice-president of the South African chapter of the International Association of Women Judges; in that capacity, she deputises KwaZulu-Natal Judge President Thoba Poyo-Dlwati.[20]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Judge Segopotje Sheila Mphahlele". Judges Matter. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Private sector: Attorneys". The Mail & Guardian. 7 August 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  3. ^ "Lawyers put JSC's conduct in the dock". The Mail & Guardian. 4 October 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  4. ^ "Women come in for JSC grilling". News24. 13 October 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Positive reaction to recommended judges, gender transformation takes centre stage". News24. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  6. ^ "Zuma appoints mostly female judges". News24. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  7. ^ de Villiers, James (1 August 2017). "Judge to inspect location where man was forced into coffin". News24. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  8. ^ "White South African farmers guilty in 'coffin assault'". Al Jazeera. 25 August 2017. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  9. ^ "South African farmers who forced black man into coffin convicted". The Guardian. 25 August 2017. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  10. ^ Essa, Azad (27 October 2017). "How some South Africans reacted to the coffin sentences". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  11. ^ "Coffin assault accused sentenced to more than 10 years each". Sowetan. 27 October 2017. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  12. ^ Chabalala, Jeanette (27 October 2017). "Coffin duo's sentences should be a deterrent - minister". News24. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  13. ^ "South African court cuts jail term for farmers in coffin case". Al Jazeera. 3 December 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  14. ^ "Judge in Maditla case found no reason to deviate from prescribed sentence". SABC News. 20 September 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  15. ^ "A 'sorry' Zinhle Maditla wants court to give her minimum sentence". Sowetan. 17 September 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  16. ^ Mabuza, Ernest (2 February 2021). "JSC announces shortlist of judge candidates to be interviewed in April". Sunday Times. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  17. ^ a b c Shange, Naledi (21 April 2021). "'Coffin assault' case judge put forward for deputy JP post in Mpumalanga". Sunday Times. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  18. ^ "President appoints judges from April 2021 JSC interviews". Judges Matter. 13 August 2021. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  19. ^ a b c "Segopotje Mphahlele gets JSC nod for Mpumalanga judge president". Sunday Times. 18 April 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  20. ^ "Executive Profiles". SAC-IAWJ. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
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