Siyabonga Mkhwanazi

The incoming chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng believes that God wants him to take over the reins at the highest court in the land.

His comment was in response to a question by the IFP’s Koos van der Merwe, who asked if he believed that he had been picked by God to head the Constitutional Court.

Mogoeng will become chief justice after the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) members gave him the thumbs up – apparently by a majority of 16-7.

Mogoeng, who yesterday faced a second day of intense grilling before the commission in Cape Town, told Van der Merwe that he was a believer. “I am one of those believers who believe that there is God and God does speak.

“When a position comes, such as this serious one, knowing my limitations, I wouldn’t take it unless I have prayed and satisfied myself that there is an indication that God wants me to take it.”

Mogoeng said he knew that if he took on something “without the backing of the God” he would fail dismally. “So I prayed and I got a signal that it was the right thing to do when approached to accept the nomination.”

Mogoeng’s nomination by President Jacob Zuma as the sole candidate for the job has been controversial and for the past five weeks critics have been vocal in their opposition to him.

Doubts about whether Mogoeng could work harmoniously with the Deputy Chief Justice, Digkang Moseneke, were also raised after a terse exchange between the two on Saturday.

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Fatima Chohan, a JSC member, said she hoped that Mogoeng would have a good working relationship with Moseneke.

Another JSC member Cecil Burgess, who is also chairperson of Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence, said making the interviewing process public was fair to all parties and afforded South Africans an opportunity to make their own judgment of Mogoeng.

Independent legal analyst Kevin Malunga said Mogoeng had proved his critics wrong, but warned that the interview had shown divisions among members of the JSC along political lines.

“The question is then in picking up the pieces from the fallout with different organisations,” said Malunga adding that he was waiting to see how Mogoeng and Moseneke would work together.

An exhausted Mogoeng later described his appearance before the JSC as “necessary, robust and fair”.