Phineas Mojapelo

Phineas Mathale Deon Mojapelo (born 11 June 1951) is a South African retired judge of the High Court of South Africa. He was the Deputy Judge President of the South Gauteng Division from January 2005 to June 2020, and he joined the bench in January 2003 as a puisne judge of the North Gauteng Division. He was also an acting judge in the Constitutional Court of South Africa in 2017. He is a professional mediator (trained in the U.S.), and the current director of mediation services, especially training new mediators, at the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) in Sandton, South Africa.

Born in Polokwane, Limpopo, Mojapelo began his legal career as an attorney in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, where he ran a prominent law firm with Mathews Phosa and Ephraim Makgoba. He was national president of the Black Lawyers Association from 1991 to 1995, and he is also a former member of the Judicial Service Commission and South African Law Reform Commission.

Early life and education Mojapelo was born on 11 June 1951 in Polokwane in the former Northern Transvaal. His mother was a teacher and he grew up in a large household with his maternal family. He matriculated at Tshebela High School on the rural outskirts of Polokwane and studied law at the University of the North, where he completed a BProc and an LLB.

Less than two years later, President Mbeki announced that Mojapelo would be transferred to the High Court's Witwatersrand Local Division (South Gauteng Division), where he would become Deputy Judge President of the division. He took office on 1 January 2005. Mojapelo dismissed a challenge to the constitutionality of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1996, finding that the Constitution licensed its provision for girls under the age of 18 to have abortions without parental consent. In May 2016, Mojapelo certified South Africa's largest-ever class action suit, brought by mineworkers in Nkala v Harmony Gold; and in February 2017, in Democratic Alliance v Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, he blocked the state's attempt to withdraw from the Rome Statute.

In 2019, sitting in the Equality Court, Mojapelo presided in Nelson Mandela Foundation Trust v Afriforum, in which he found that gratuitous displays of the apartheid-era South African flag amounted to hate speech under the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000. The ruling was politically sensitive and developed judicial precedent insofar as it found that the Equality Act's definition of hate speech extended to gestures, as well as words. His judgment was largely upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2023.

Other politically sensitive matters heard by Mojapelo included several involving prominent political figures. In 2008, he led a full bench in adjudicating Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe's lawsuit against the Constitutional Court and its justices, and in 2014, he set aside Zwelinzima Vavi's suspension as the general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. He was also scheduled to preside in the rape trial of former Deputy President Jacob Zuma, but he did not avail himself for personal reasons, with media reporting that he had known Zuma personally during apartheid.

Nomination to judge presidency In early 2012, as Bernard Ngoepe approached retirement, Mojapelo emerged as a frontrunner to succeed Ngoepe as Judge President of the Gauteng Division. His primary competitor was perceived to be Dunstan Mlambo; according to the Mail & Guardian, Mojapelo's candidacy was supported by the National Association of Democratic Lawyers but opposed by elements of the Black Lawyers' Association which viewed him as a participant in "the liberal agenda of fighting the ANC-led government through the courts". However, the Black Lawyers' Association ultimately endorsed Mojapelo too.

In March 2012, the Judicial Service Commission announced Mojapelo, Mlambo, and Francis Legodi as the three shortlisted candidates for the judge presidency, and they were interviewed in Cape Town the following month. Mojapelo's lengthy interview was consumed with unfriendly questioning about an op-ed he had published the previous year. In the op-ed, published in the Sunday Times, Mojapelo argued that the Judicial Service Commission had departed from proper procedure in appointing Sandile Ngcobo as Chief Justice of South Africa in 2009. During the interview, he was pressed on his argument by panellists Nomvula Mokonyane and, especially, Jeff Radebe, then the Minister of Justice. In the aftermath, the Judicial Service Commission announced Mlambo as its preferred candidate for the judge presidency. The Mail & Guardian said that the decision, while unsurprising, was "likely to send ripples through the legal fraternity".

Retirement In March 2021, Mojapelo wrote on behalf of the Judicial Conduct Committee of the Judicial Service Commission in adjudicating a series of complaints against Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng. Mogoeng was ordered to retract and apologise for certain controversial remarks he had made about South African policy toward the state of Israel. In an appeal, Mogoeng said that Mojapelo's "reasoning is flawed and disturbingly superficial".

In May 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa (another of Mojapelo's contemporaries at university) appointed Mojapelo to chair an independent panel tasked with investigating the Lady R incident. The other members of the panel were Enver Surty and Advocate Leah Gcabashe. The Democratic Alliance later challenged Mojapelo's appointment to the panel, arguing that it undermined judicial independence.

Mojapelo is an active commercial mediator and arbitrator, and is deeply involved in the expansion of mediation opportunities in South Africa and other southern African nations. Following his training in 2019 (in the U.S.), he has consistently advocated for more access to mediation for the people of his country. He is among the most prominent mediators -- and mediation trainers -- in South Africa. The seven judges have been engaged in that effort since that time. In July 2022, Mojapelo helped arrange for a national mediation summit in Cape Town where a large number of judges from various levels of court were trained in mediation practices; court-annexed mediation was the focus of their attention. The South African Judicial Education Institute (SAJEI) and several judges were prominent in that effort, including his six colleagues from the U.S.-mediation-training group -- Audrey Ledwaba, Thoba Poyo-Dlwati, Nolwazi Mabindla-Boqwana, Glenn Goosen (judge), Raylene Keightley, and Norman Davis. Additionally, Dunstan Mlambo and Francis Legodi were leaders at the conference; faculty members and mediators from the U.S. included Judge Ben H. Hadfield (ret.), Nathan D. Alder, Velvet Rodriquez and Stephen D. Kelson. Chief Justice Raymond Zondo attended the meetings and expressed full support for court-based mediation, stating that he would "like it to take off as soon as possible."

Personal life Mojapelo is married to Setlola Phoshoko-Mojapelo He has four children.