South Africa: SA Courts Buckle As Judicial Independence Remains Unfinished Business, Warns Chief Justice Maya

Chief Justice Mandisa Maya says chronic under-resourcing and incomplete judicial independence are slowing justice and undermining public confidence in the courts.

Nearly 30 years into South Africa's constitutional democracy, the country's judiciary remains only partially independent, Chief Justice Mandisa Maya has warned, as courts struggle to deal with the pressures of chronic underfunding, staff shortages and failing infrastructure.

The Chief Justice was opening the 2026 Judiciary Conference on Tuesday, 14 July, where she said that institutional weaknesses were no longer simply administrative shortcomings, but constitutional failures that threatened access to justice.

Addressing delegates comprised of judges, magistrates and legal practitioners, Maya said that although the Constitution guaranteed judicial independence, South Africa had yet to establish a judiciary that could fully govern and resource itself without reliance on the executive.

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"The South African judiciary enjoys only adjudicative independence, and institutional independence remains an unfulfilled goal.

"And judicial officers carry the heavy burden of case adjudication, and operate in a system whose governance and resourcing, and their conditions of service, are not aligned with a single judicial authority contemplated by our Constitution," Maya said.

Her remarks come as the government is implementing legislation that gives the judiciary greater control over its administration. But Maya revealed that negotiations over the institutional model had already encountered some difficulties.

"The pressing task now, which has hit...