In 2003, the Judicial Officers Amendment Act (Act No 28 of 2003), was enacted as part of an ongoing process of judicial reform aimed, inter alia, at strengthening judicial independence in our young democracy. The Act amended the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office-Bearers Act (Act No 92 of 1997) (the Commission Act), so as to extend the definition of "office-bearer" to include judges and magistrates and to make further consequential amendments. The Act further amended the Magistrates Act (Act No 90 of 1993) (the Magistrates Act) to provide for this new system to regulate the remuneration determination for magistrates. The new system for the regulation of the remuneration of magistrates was aimed at ensuring that magistrates do not participate in activities associated with the collective bargaining system and as such gives effect to the views expressed by the Constitutional Court in the Van Rooyen judgment, where the Court held as follows:[1] "Judicial officers ought not to be put in a position of having to ... engage in negotiations with the executive over their salaries. They are judicial officers, not employees, and cannot and should not resort to industrial action to advance their interests in their conditions of service. That makes them vulnerable to having less attention paid to their legitimate concerns in relation to such matters, than others who can advance their interests through normal bargaining processes open to them".