By Nomfundo Manyathi-Jele
The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Michael Masutha, has appointed 11 members to serve on the newly constituted South African Board of Sheriffs. The term of office of the new board commenced on 2 March 2015 and it is for a period of three years.
According to the Justice Department, the new board is broadly representative in respect of race, gender and geographical composition. The board comprises six male and five female members from various provinces in the country. The new board members are:
Thamsanqa Tembe
Mr Tembe is a practicing attorney and holds a BProc degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He was admitted as an attorney in 1998 and as a conveyancer in 2001. Mr Tembe is a member of the outgoing board and has been nominated by the Law Society of South Africa to continue to serve as its representative.
Lesiba Mashapa
Mr Mashapa has 14 years’ experience in the legal profession, which includes, inter alia, lecturing, practising for his own account and working as a legal adviser with the National Credit Regulator. He holds a BProc (cum laude) and LLB degree from the University of Pretoria.
Professor Lovell Fernandez
Professor Fernandez is a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). He holds Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees from UWC, a Masters in Comparative Law from New York University and a Doctorate in Philosophy (Law) from the University of Witwatersrand. He is currently the UWC director of the LLM programme on Transitional Criminal Justice and Crime Prevention. During 1996 he was the legal adviser to the then Minister of Justice, Dullah Omar.
Meko Magida
Mr Magida holds BProc (University of the Western Cape) and LLB (University of South Africa (Unisa)) degrees and is completing his final year in LLM (Unisa) this year. He served as a commissioner for Employment Equity (appointed to advise the Minister of Labour) and was a member of a Statutory Commission appointed to investigate allegations of poor service delivery and maladministration at the Oudtshoorn Municipality.
Nomakhosi Skosana
Ms Skosana holds a BCom in accounting. She has extensive information and communications technology industry experience at strategic and operational general management in Africa, having also ventured into the banking and broadcasting space. She has finance, governance, strategy and general management expertise.
Charmaine Mabuza
Ms Mabuza is the chairperson of the board. She was one of the first black woman sheriffs appointed during 2002 as the sheriff for the Nelspruit High Court (Mpumalanga) and subsequently thereafter as sheriff for the lower court. She was first appointed to the South African Board for Sheriffs in 2006 and for a second term in 2009, when she served as deputy chairperson of the board. She was appointed in 2012 as the chairperson of the board.
Petro Roodt
Ms Roodt is a member of the outgoing board and was nominated by the South African Sheriff Society. She has been involved with the sheriffs’ profession since 1992. Ms Roodt was previously the office manager and deputy sheriff in the office of the sheriff for Vereeniging. Thereafter, she was appointed as the sheriff for Sasolburg during July 2005 and is currently the sheriff for Bloemfontein East High and lower courts in the Free State. She holds a National Diploma in Civil Law Administration from the University of South Africa and various certificates for courses in sheriffing.
NomaJwara Victoria Soga
Ms Soga has been in the profession since 1993 when she started off as a messenger in the King Williams Town Sheriff Office and later as a deputy sheriff. She was appointed as the sheriff for Alice during November 2002 and, with effect from 1 December 2012, she was appointed as the sheriff of Port Elizabeth West. She was also an acting sheriff for Fort Beaufort, Seymour, Adelaide, Middledrift and Keiskammahoek.
Mmathoto Lephadi
Ms Lephadi has BProc and LLB degrees and was a lecturer at the University of Bophuthatswana for one year. She was previously employed as a state advocate, legal adviser, a family advocate with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Corporate Legal Consultant and later Corporate Legal Secretary for Eskom, Group Company Secretary for Denel (Pty) Ltd, and as the Group Company Secretary at Telkom SA Limited. She has 27 years’ experience in the legal field and was appointed as the sheriff for Randburg South West since 1 December 2012.
Ignatius Klynsmith
Mr Klynsmith is a practising attorney at Van Velden – Duffey Attorneys and was appointed as the Sheriff for the Rustenburg High Court Office since 1 July 1981. He has over 30 years’ experience in the sheriff profession. Mr Klynsmith was an acting judge in the Gauteng North High Court during 1996, as well as a Member of the Goldstone Commission that investigated the prevention of violence during the 1994 election.
Advocate Hisamodien Mohamed
Advocate Mohamed is the Regional Head of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in the Western Cape. He represents the Minister on the current Board for the South African Board for Sheriffs and he is also responsible for the sheriffs’ administration at the Justice Department. He holds BIur and LLB degrees and has a Master’s in Public Administration. He was admitted as an advocate in the Western Cape High Court in 1995.
Minister Masutha commended the outgoing board, whose term expired on 28 February, for the significant contribution that it has made in the professionalisation and transformation of the sheriff’s industry. Notable achievements include the implementation of the new sheriff’s Pledge and Code of Conduct applicable to the industry, which the Justice Department said are vital for improving service delivery and renewing public faith in the profession.
Top of the new board’s priorities is the publication of the new Sheriffs Guide: Practice and Procedure, which is intended to lay the foundation for a uniform approach to service delivery in the sheriff’s industry.
• See 2014 (May) DR 11.
Nomfundo Manyathi-Jele NDip Journ (DUT) BTech Journ (TUT) is the news editor at De Rebus.
This article was first published in De Rebus in 2015 (April) DR 8.
