Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo says he hopes President Cyril Ramaphosa will finalise the appointment of judges soon.

Speaking during the presentation of the Judiciary's Annual Report for 2020/2021, Zondo said he hoped vacancies on the Bench would be filled soon.

There are two vacancies at the Constitutional Court after Justices Sisi Khampepe and Chris Jafta retired this year. Interviews to fill the two positions were first held in April.

After a court battle, they were redone at the beginning of October.

The judges whose names were forwarded to Ramaphosa for a decision are Jody Kollapen, Rammaka Mathopo, Mahube Molemela, Fayeeza Kathree-Setiloane and Bashier Vally. Zondo said Ramaphosa was still consulting.

"The president has been engaged in the process of consultation that is required by the Constitution. That process has not been finalised recently. I am confident that, in all probability, the president will be making his decision known in due course. The interviews were in October... we are early in December. Compared to other occasions... in the past, we have had much longer delays."

Ramaphosa also still has to make decisions on the appointments in the high court division. Interviews were held earlier this year.

Zondo said: "I am not sure what is causing the delay, but I am hoping that the president will make appointments without any further delays."

He said in the year under review, 11 judges left their positions and none of them were replaced because the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) could not conduct interviews due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

Ten judges had also died. Another vacancy that still needed to be filled was that of the Chief Justice. 

Retired Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng's term ended in October and Zondo has been acting in the role. Zondo, Supreme Court of Appeal President Justice Mandisa Maya, Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga and Gauteng Judge President Dustan Mlambo are being considered for the position.

The Acting Chief Justice said while strides had been made to ensure gender equality in the judiciary, more work was needed. Zondo said of the 284 active judges, only 44% were women.

He said that of the 1 729 magistrates, only 49% were women.

Judicial targets Zondo said in the year under review; the judiciary had set targets to ensure there were no backlogs.

The Constitutional Court targeted to complete 70% of the matters that appeared before it.

They only managed to finish 61% of the 445 matters they heard. "Although it fell short of its target, there was a 10% increase in its caseload," he said.

The Supreme Court of Appeal wanted to finalise 80% of its matters.

"It had a total of 241 matters and finalised 196 of those. That was an achievement of 81%. In regards to its petitions, it finalised 99%."

The high court divisions set a target of finalising 75% of criminal matters and achieved 85%.

"The various divisions of the high court had a total of 11 413 criminal cases and they finalised 9 749 of those cases. That was a great achievement. They exceeded their target."

The high courts also set a 64% target for finalised civil matters.

"They had a total of 83 080 and finalised 69 908, that translated to 84%. That means that divisions of the high court exceeded their target by 20% in this regard. That was a pleasing performance."

The high courts also wanted to reduce the criminal trial backlog by 30%.

"They were not able to achieve this target, but they reduced the criminal trial backlog to 41%. They were 11% short of their target," Zondo said.