President Zuma appoints first female Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Appeal

23 September 2015

President Jacob Zuma has, in terms of Section 174(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, appointed Justice Mandisa Muriel Maya as the Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Justice Maya will fill the vacancy that has occurred following the discharge from active service of Mr Justice Khayelihle Kenneth Mthiyane.

She will thus occupy one of the top four senior positions in the leadership echelons of the judiciary.

Justice Maya has close to thirty years’ experience in the legal profession, having started as an attorney’s clerk at a law firm in uMthatha in 1987. She then went on to work as a court interpreter, prosecutor and assistant state law adviser in uMthatha. She served her pupillage at the Johannesburg Bar and practised as an advocate between1993 to 1995.

She was appointed an acting judge of the High Court in 1999 and a fulltime judge the following year. She has acted as a judge at the Labour Court, an acting judge in the Supreme Court of Appeal, and as an acting judge at the Constitutional Court. In 2006 she was appointed a judge at the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Justice Maya holds three university degrees: B.Proc from the University of Transkei, LLB from the University of Natal, and LLM from Duke University in the United States where she was a Fulbright scholar.

“We congratulate Justice Maya and wish her all the best in the execution of this critical responsibility in the South African Judiciary,” said President Zuma.

Statement issued by Bongani Majola, The Presidency, 23 September 2015