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November 2020 interviews

For three weeks between 3 and 21 November 2020 the Magistrates Commission will sit in Pretoria to interview 481 candidates who will fill 186 vacancies at magistrates’ courts around the country. These interviews will focus on vacancies in the provinces of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Cape, and the Western Cape.

The Magistrates Commission is the body authorised by law to advise the Minister of Justice on magisterial appointments. When there is a vacancy at a magistrates court, the Appointments Committee of the Magistrates Commission calls for applications and conducts structured interviews to assess the fitness and suitability of the candidates. Each candidate is asked a broadly standard set of questions in an interview that runs for about 30 minutes. The interview panel is made up the 8 members of the Appointments Committee, which includes members of Parliament, the head of SAJEI, two chief magistrates and the Cluster Head of the region for which the appointment will be made. The Committee is chaired by a Regional Court President.

Following the interviews, the Appointments Committee draws up a list of candidates to recommend to the Minister of Justice for appointment, who will then confirm the appointments.

We will be attending some of the interviews during this session. At the end of the session, you can look forward to a summary of the highlights from the interviews, including audio recordings and our observations from being in the room.

In the mean time, you can follow live updates on our Twitter page @Mag_Matter. Use the hashtag #MagistratesMatter to join the conversation.”

The schedule for the November 2020 interview schedule is available here.