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A panel chaired by the Chief Justice Justice Mandisa Maya, comprising of the Public Protector, Adv Kholeka Gcaleka, Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) Adv Nthabiseng Sepanya-Mogale and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) Chairperson Chris Nissen conducts interviews for three vacancies in the Electoral Commission (IEC) on July 21, 2025.
Former KwaZulu-Natal Deputy Judge President, Judge Mjabuliseni Madondo, says that traditional leaders are key in building confidence in the country’s electoral democracy.
He was the first candidate to be interviewed by a panel led by Chief Justice Mandisa Maya to fill three vacancies in the Electoral Commission (IEC).
Madondo has presided over a number of important and high-profile judgments, including declaring the Zulu King’s Ingonyama Trust to have acted unconstitutionally by giving the subjects residential leases over land that he was holding in trust on their behalf.
He also dismissed a challenge to the validity of the will of the late King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu.
Madondo says he works with traditional leaders on how to run affairs pertaining to the country’s laws.
He says, “In the rural area the gate is at the leader, if you rope the leader in and they call an imbizo and we send our officials to address those people they ask questions, you give them credible answers and the complaints they lodge, you work on them in such a way that they see that something is happening that will restore the confidence.”
VIDEO | Judge Mjabuliseni Madondo’s interview:
