Candidate judges may now have public interviews

The Judicial Service Commission has changed its regulations to open the way for aspirant judges to be interviewed in public.

This is in terms of a change of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) regulations that chief justice Peter Shivute announced in the Government Gazette at the end of last week.

The change affects two parts of the regulations, which previously stated that when candidates for appointment as judges of the High Court and Supreme Court are interviewed by the JSC, such interviews are conducted in private.

The changed regulations now state that when the JSC decides to have interviews for candidate judges, the interviews must take place in public.

The amendment of the regulations comes after criticism from some quarters that the JSC has been acting secretively and without transparency when considering the recommendation of judges to be appointed by the president.

The JSC regulations do not oblige the commission to conduct interviews of candidates nominated for appointment as judges, but state that the JSC may have oral interviews of candidates “if it deems it necessary”.

In terms of the Constitution, the president appoints judges – and also Namibia’s prosecutor general and ombudsman – on a recommendation from the JSC.

The JSC has five members: the chief justice, the deputy chief justice, the attorney general, and two lawyers nominated by professional bodies representing legal practitioners in Namibia.