ONE of the candidates vying for a position in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) was grilled about his alleged temper and rudeness towards lawyers appearing before him.
Acting chairwoman of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) deputy Chief Justice Mandisa Maya told Judge Bashier Vally during the interviews on Tuesday, 4 October that there was a complaint that he was harsh with councils.
She told him the SCA required a team player and was worried if Vally would be able to do that.
Vally denied the claims, but said he would take on board whatever criticism made. He said he never received any specific complaint about what was raised. However, he promised to learn from his mistakes and change his ways.
“It is very important to learn from other people where you went wrong. I will take note of what they said,” said Vally.
He said he was the perfect candidate for the job and his work ethic speaks for itself.
He said he’d be able to keep up with the pace at the SCA.
“Without fear of contradiction, I can say I have produced a lot of judgments in a very short time involving voluminous papers,” said Vally.
Asked about his exchange with former judge president Dennis Davis in previous interviews, he said anxiety got the better of him.
Vally said: “I regret it. It’s not an indication of me losing temper all the time.”
Another candidate, Pretoria Judge Sulett Potterill, told the commission a lot has been done to transform the judiciary, but more work still needed to be done.
She said she would like to see more senior councils allowing women, especially black women, to argue cases.
Potterill denied she received preferential treatment from Jugde President Dunstan Mlambo or that she wrote judgments for other judges.
Eastern Cape Judge John Smith was grilled about making elementary mistakes in his judgments.
Smith said mistakes do creep in from time to time.
The JSC is conducting interviews to fill 24 vacant positions in various courts around the country.
