Advocates for Transformation (AFT) has informed its members that Kameshni Pillay SC and Siphokazi Poswa-Lerotholi SC will alternatively represent it at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) after advocate Dali Mpofu's term ended.

This means that Mpofu's representation of AFT at the controversial Chief Justice interviews was the last time he represented it at the JSC. During the interviews, Mpofu had controversially asked Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo about unsubstantiated sexual harassment rumours and told the JSC that he and Appeal Court President Judge Mandisa Maya had "spent the night together".

An AFT sub-committee – comprised of advocates Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC, Joe Nxusani SC, Phumlani Ngobese SC, Kgomotso Nhlapo-Merabe, Dustin Thompson, and Siphokazi Cubungu – has unanimously endorsed the candidature of both Pillay and Poswa-Lerotholi.

"We recommend that the CVs of Pillay SC and Poswa-Lerotholi SC should be obtained and urgently sent to the minister of justice with a request to process their appointment timeously for the April 2022 interviews," it stated in a report sent to its membership on Thursday night.

The sub-committee also examined AFT's role at the JSC and, among other things, what had occurred at the Chief Justice interviews, which have been widely lambasted.

"There are concerns about the interview techniques and the impact this has had on the process. There are criticisms that there is a discreet political motive, that there has been overreach and that judicial nominees have been subjected to an unconstitutional process," the AFT sub-committee report read.

Some woman members of AFT have pointed out that there was a sexist flavour to the interview of Judge President Maya. Others have contended that the interviews portrayed four excellent black judges in a poor light and retarded the process of transformation.

While noting that AFT had defended Mpofu against the "sustained and ad hominem attack" he faced from "outside quarters", the sub-committee also stated that "AFT has not defended Mpofu SC in his role as a member of AFT and its representative at the JSC".

"AFT has also not sought to clarify where it differs with him, if at all. In this regard, AFT has failed to provide sorely needed leadership to its members and the profession generally," the report read.

The sub-committee report stressed that AFT should have engaged with Mpofu after the JSC's interviews with potential Constitutional Court justice nominees in April last year, which were successfully challenged in court because of the apparent "sham" process that preceded the vote on candidates.

"This does not appear to have happened. AFT National acted in an unprincipled manner. It did not confront the issue head-on. This caused considerable reputational damage to AFT, coming as it did on the rancid underperformance of AFT in the GCB (General Council of the Bar)," the sub-committee report stated.

"AFT knew that the interviews for the position of Chief Justice were imminent, but the NEC (national executive committee) took no steps at all to engage with Mpofu SC to align his position with his views in advance."