Two deputy judges president appointed for High Court

High Court judges Shafimana Ueitele and Hannelie Prinsloo have been appointed as deputy judges president of the court.

The secretary of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), Elias Shikongo, announced the appointment of Ueitele and Prinsloo on Friday.

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah appointed them as deputy judges president on a recommendation from the JSC with effect from the start of April, Shikongo said in a statement issued by the Office of the Judiciary.

He also announced that Nandi-Ndaitwah has appointed six acting judges of the High Court.

Five of the acting judges are practising law as members of the Society of Advocates of Namibia.

They are senior counsel Reinhard Tötemeyer and Andrew Corbett, Gerson Narib, Natasha Bassingthwaighte and Lotta Ambunda.

Narib is due to serve as an acting judge from the start of May to the end of July, and Ambunda from 15 April to the end of July.

Corbett’s tenure as an acting judge is from the start of August to the end of October, while Bassingthwaighte’s is from 16 September to 12 December and Tötemeyer’s is from the start of October to 15 December, Shikongo announced.

High Court judge Herman January, who has been a judge since August 2014, is due to retire at the end of April after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 65, but has been appointed as an acting judge to finalise partly heard cases not yet concluded by the end of April, Shikongo said.

Tötemeyer, Corbett, Narib and Bassingthwaighte have all served as acting judges previously. Ambunda has been appointed as an acting judge for the first time.

Ueitele and Prinsloo, who have been judges of the High Court since July 2012 and July 2017, respectively, are succeeding former deputy judge president Hosea Angula, who became an appeal judge in the Supreme Court in December last year.

Ueitele and Prinsloo are both also serving as acting judges of appeal in the Supreme Court.