Chris Jafta

The Honourable Chris Jafta
File:Christopher Jafta.jpg
Justice of the Constitutional Court
Incumbent
Assumed office November 2009
Appointed by	President Jacob Zuma
Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal
In office October 2004 – October 2009
Appointed by	President Thabo Mbeki
Judge of the Transkei High Court
In office 4 January 1999 – October 2004
Appointed by	President Thabo Mbeki
Acting Judge of the Transkei High Court
In office May 1997 – December 1998
Appointed by	President Thabo Mbeki
Personal details
Born	1959 Matatiele, Cape Province
Alma mater	University of Transkei

Christopher Nyaole "Chris" Jafta (born 1959) is a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

Early life

Jafta was born outside Matatiele, now on the border between the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, and went to junior and high school there. His father was a builder and his mother a housewife.

Jafta earned a BProc at the University of Transkei in 1983 and began work as a prosecutor for the Transkei government. He was briefly demoted to an administrative position for failing to obey instructions from the security police. He became a magistrate in 1986, completing an LLB part-time, and later returned to his alma mater as a lecturer in constitutional law and commercial law. In 1993 he was admitted as an advocate and practiced in Mthatha.

Judicial career

In 1999 Jafta was appointed a judge of the Transkei Division of the High Court (now the Mthatha seat of the Eastern Cape Division). From 2001 to 2003 he was acting Judge President of the Transkei Division, and in 2003 and 2004 he served in acting positions on the Labour Appeal Court (on the invitation of Ray Zondo) and the Supreme Court of Appeal. In 2004 he was elevated to a permanent position on the Supreme Court of Appeal. Jafta was seen by some as a "rising star". His own view was that his appointment as a judge, and rapid series of promotions, came too early in his career, but was necessary to increase the bench's racial diversity.

Constitutional Court

In 2007 and 2008 Jafta served as an acting justice of the Constitutional Court, and in 2009 he was permanently appointed (together with Sisi Khampepe, Mogoeng Mogoeng and Johan Froneman) by President Jacob Zuma. He is considered a key member, with Ray Zondo, of the Court's conservative wing.

Some of Jafta's judgments have proved controversial. For example, his judgment in Walele, delivered during his acting stint, has been described by a leading advocate as "awful" and "inexplicable". He is one of the most prolific judges on the Court, with a very high dissent rate, including on points not raised by the parties or his colleagues. His main judgments have sometimes received no support from his colleagues. Jafta's dissent in Rivonia, which received the support of only his staunch ally Ray Zondo and was criticised by commentators, sought to racialise a seemingly innocuous issue and said certain of the Court's previous judgments were not binding. However, his unanimous judgment in Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela, which upheld an appeal by a rural community embroiled in a dispute with its controversial traditional leader, was described as a "crucial" judgment on land rights and land reform and received lavish praise from commentators.

Hlophe controversy

In 2008, when Jafta was acting in the Constitutional Court, High Court judge John Hlophe allegedly approached Jafta and Bess Nkabinde to persuade them to find for President Jacob Zuma in pending litigation. The Constitutional Court laid a public complaint against Hlophe which Jafta and Nkabinde supported. Six years later, however, when the misconduct enquiry against Hlophe was pending, Jafta and Nkabinde brought a court challenge to the tribunal's jurisdiction, saying their own complaint was not legally valid. Commentators slammed Jafta and Nkabinde's "cowardice", which had brought the Constitutional Court into disrepute. The judges claimed, in response, that they were simply upholding the Constitution. The High Court dismissed the judges' application on 26 September 2014, but they appealed. The Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed that appeal in March 2016, criticising Jafta and Nkabinde's damaging court application and implying that the case raised questions about their "integrity". On 6 April 2016, Jafta and Nkabinde filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court – their own court – asking it to overturn the Supreme Court of Appeal's judgment. They did so partly on the basis that the SCA made "hurtful" imputations about them. All this was despite the fact, as one commentator noted, that the Constitutional Court already held in 2012 that it cannot hear appeals in the Hlophe matter and that any SCA judgment is final.

Personal life

Jafta is married and has two children.