On Friday President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the appointment of Supreme Court of Appeal justice Rammaka Mathopo and Gauteng High Court judge Jody Kollapen as justices of the Constitutional Court.
The appointments will fill two of the five vacancies at Court and the presidency said the appointments will be effective from January 1.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) sent a list of five names to the president after interviews in October. The interviews were a re-run of interviews held in April that were set aside by a court order.
The three shortlisted candidates who did not get the nod in this round were Supreme Court of Appeal justice Mahube Molemela, and Gauteng judges Fayeeza Kathree-Setiloane and Bashier Vally.
Mathopo, appointed a judge in 2006, was a favourite candidate among lawyers, especially those who work in the Gauteng courts, where he was a judge before his elevation to the SCA. While acting at the Constitutional Court, he wrote the seminal judgment that extended the doctrine of common purpose to the crime of rape.
Mathopo famously ordered the release of the spy tapes in the epic legal battle over corruption charges that former president Jacob Zuma is still to be prosecuted for — a decision confirmed by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Kollapen became a household name in the 1990s when he chaired the SA Human Rights Commission. He was the judge who ordered that the failure of the basic education department to provide textbooks to schoolchildren in Limpopo was a breach of their rights.
He also refused to grant a permanent stay of prosecution against the man charged with the 1971 murder of liberation fighter Ahmed Timol. He was recently part of the three-judge bench who rejected the application by Ace Magashule to set aside his suspension as secretary-general of the ANC.