It is extremely unfortunate that a historic recommendation that an excellent black woman judge, president of the Supreme Court of Appeal, Mandisa Maya, should become the next chief justice of the Constitutional Court of our country, is marred by the incompetence and childishness of several commissioners sitting on the Judicial Service Commission.

First, it is appropriate to mark the recommendation of the JSC with the requisite level of praise for, and acknowledgment of, the importance of this recommendation. Judge Maya meets the requirements for the job with flying colours. She has demonstrable intellectual leadership, as well as proof that she can look after the administrative architecture of parts of the judiciary — the SCA for example — with technocratic effectiveness and efficiency, and with due authority recognised by those working within her division. She has several degrees from here and overseas, as well as various honorary doctorates. Hers is, overall, an academic and judicial CV that suggests she is eminently qualified to be our first woman chief justice. Of course, president Cyril Ramaphosa has the ultimate say and is not constitutionally obliged to side with the JSC. ..