New High Court hears its first-ever case

MBOMBELA – “Mpumalanga finally got the opportunity to have their matters heard in Mbombela and in the Middelburg Court for the first time. This is not the official opening, which will still be done by the president, who will elaborate and clarify the content of this court coming into existence.

“My coming here was to satisfy myself that everything is in place for this court to function properly, observe how the first day is running and confer with the Judge President to deal with any other challenges that he may be experiencing. Our role is to provide administrative support to make sure that it functions optimally,” he said.

Masutha mentioned that the court came into existence by virtue of the 2013 Superior Courts Act, which established nine divisions of the High Court in South Africa, including Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

“Subsequent to that, the president had the responsibility to create the establishment of the court; that is to declare the judges’ positions of this court, so that those positions can be filled. At this stage, the president has declared nine judges’ positions,” he said.

Only four of the nine positions have been filled. “I wrote to the Chief Justice requesting that he invite all members of
the Judiciary in South Africa to voluntary constitute the first block of judges who will come here by way of transfers.

Only four judges volunteered. Three volunteered to be based here and one will be placed in the Middelburg Court,” he said.