Chairperson, members of the committee, comrades and friends, we know that apartheid judges and magistrates were required to apply laws that denied black people respect and dignity. For this reason, oppressed people saw the judiciary as part and parcel of an instrument of the apartheid system of oppression and exploitation.
Apartheid was an unjust and unfair system that required judges and magistrates to be nothing more than positivist functionaries who had to apply the laws without regard for the principles of justice and human rights. To eradicate manifestations of apartheid in the South African judicial system the Constitution enjoins us to transform the judiciary to ensure that it consists of men and women drawn from all sectors of society, from our entire South African population.
With this, the wisdom, experience and competent judicial skills of South Africans would be represented within our judiciary. However, transformation of the judiciary cannot be confined to the personnel. Even their value systems, their approach to justice, their capacity for justice and the understanding of the direction of the Constitution must be transformed.
I am reminded here of a situation in the dark days where people needed just to have a particular shape of head and they would be perceived to be criminals. So, as long as you had a flat nose, then you were a criminal until proven otherwise. This addresses the transformation required. The people in those dark days were drilled, without even being taken to the courts, on account of the shape of their heads. We need to move on from that sort of a situation. This transformation should happen without interfering with the principle of judicial independence.
We are deeply appreciative of the work done to transform the judiciary. In this context, we welcome and applaud the efforts of all those who have taken us this far in transforming our judiciary in the past 15 years. In particular, I would like to join the Minister in thanking the Judicial Service Commission for a task well done and for the good efforts put into it.