Raylene Keightley

Raylene May Keightley (born 19 November 1961) is a South African judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal. She was appointed to the bench in the Gauteng High Court in January 2016 after a career as a legal academic and practising lawyer. She was admitted as an attorney in 1986 and as an advocate in 2006.

Born in the Eastern Cape, Keightley began her career at the University of Cape Town and University of the Witwatersrand, where she taught law between 1988 and 1999. Thereafter she spent seven years at the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority. From 2006 to 2015, she practised law at the Johannesburg Bar, with a stint as the director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies between 2008 and 2011. She was appointed to the bench by President Jacob Zuma in 2016 and was elevated to the Supreme Court by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2024.

Early life and education Keightley was born on 19 November 1961 in Kokstad in the former Cape Province. She matriculated at Umtata High School in Mthatha and went on to the University of Natal, where she completed a BA and LLB in 1984. Between 1987 and 1988, she completed an LLM at the University of Cambridge, winning Gonville and Caius College's Sir William McNair Prize for the best LLM student. and in December, President Jacob Zuma confirmed her appointment with effect from 1 January 2016.

The following year, in October 2017, Keightley handed down a landmark ruling on the unconstitutionality of corporal punishment by parents, finding that neither religious defences nor the common-law defence of "reasonable chastisement" sufficed to overrule the best interests of the child and justify corporal punishment. Her ruling was upheld by the Constitutional Court in September 2019 in Freedom of Religion South Africa v Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development. Other notable rulings by Keightley include a July 2019 ruling which prohibited the application of set-off to credit agreements under the National Credit Act, as well as an October 2022 ruling which reinstated Mpho Phalatse as the Mayor of Johannesburg following an unconstitutional vote of no confidence.

In the fall of 2019, Keightley was selected to receive mediator training in the U.S. as part of South Africa's efforts to improve mediation opportunities via court-annexed processes. Her cohort of judges included Aubrey Ledwaba, Nolwazi Mabindla-Boqwana, Thoba Poyo-Dlwati, Glenn Goosen (judge), Norman Davis, and Phineas Mojapelo (ret.). She and her U.S.-trained judge colleagues were involved planning a national summit (mediation training) for S.A. judges in Cape Town in July 2022. Court-annexed mediation was their focus. The South African Judicial Education Institute (SAJEI) and several additional judges were prominent in that effort, including former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, and former JPs Dunstan Mlambo and Francis Legodi (ret.), as well as faculty members and mediators from the U.S. -- Judge Ben H. Hadfield (ret.), Nathan D. Alder, Velvet Rodriquez, and Stephen D. Kelson. C.J. Zondo expressed full support of court-based mediation stating that he would "like it to take off as soon as possible."

Keightley was an acting judge in the Supreme Court of Appeal for two terms between July 2023 and March 2024. Ahead of the appeal, the appellant, political lobby group AfriForum, lodged a formal request that Keightley should recuse herself from the matter. According to AfriForum, Keightley had "demonstrated bias" against it in 2018, when Keightley, presiding in a previous unrelated High Court dispute, said that AfriForum was “barking up the wrong tree” and even suggested to counsel that “next time you in front of me with [AfriForum] you might to wish to apply for my recusal”. The application for recusal was refused.

Supreme Court of Appeal: 2024–present In May 2024, the Judicial Service Commission recommended Keightley for permanent elevation to the Supreme Court of Appeal. After her appointment was confirmed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, she joined the bench on 1 July 2024. with whom she has three sons.