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Just a little over half of the magistrates appointed by the minister of justice and correctional services, Ronald Lamola, are women.
TimesLive reported that 105 of the 207 magistrates Lamola appointed, with effect from February 1, 2019, are women.
These appointments would significantly contribute to the transformation of the magistracy for it to reflect South Africa’s demographics as more than half of the population in the country are women, the department was quoted as saying.
It was reported that the department said there were 284 women magistrates in South Africa in 1998 and that by June 2019, there were 758 women magistrates across the country.
The spokesperson of the department, Chrispin Phiri, was quoted as saying that the appointments Lamola made would strengthen gender transformation.
Phiri said out of the 1,803 magistrates in South Africa, 863 are women following the new appointments.
(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)
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