Supreme Court judges named for next year

PRESIDENT Hifikepunye Pohamba has made his first appointment of judges to Namibia’s highest court by tapping six Acting Judges of Appeal to join Chief Justice Peter Shivute in hearing cases in the Supreme Court over the next year.

The President has also appointed three South African judges to hear the first case on the Supreme Court’s roll for its October session, the office of the Chief Justice has announced. Two anchors of the Supreme Court bench over the past five years, Judges Fred Chomba and Bryan O’Linn, have been reappointed as Acting Judges of Appeal for another year from the start of September.Additional Acting Judges of Appeal who have been appointed all serve on the High Court bench at the moment.They are Judge President Petrus Damaseb, Acting Judge Simpson Mtambanengwe – a past Acting Chief Justice of Namibia – and Judges Mavis Gibson and Gerhard Maritz.All of them were appointed as Acting Judges of Appeal for a year starting from September 1.It is the first time that Judge President Damaseb has been chosen to hear appeals in the Supreme Court and help make decisions on petitions to the court for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.Judges Mtambanengwe, Gibson and Maritz have all been serving as Acting Judges of Appeal, in addition to serving on the High Court bench, in recent years.The Chief Justice’s office also announced that the President appointed the Judge President of South Africa’s Northern Cape High Court, Frans Kgomo, the Judge President of the Bophuthatswana High Court, Mogoeng Mogoeng, and Judge Suretta Snyders from the Transvaal and Witwatersrand Division of the High Court of South Africa to hear one appeal case in the Supreme Court.That case, involving a dispute over shares in a fishing enterprise, Old Man Fishing, will be heard on October 3.Judges are being brought in from outside Namibia because a member of Namibia’s judiciary, Supreme Court Judge of Appeal Pio Teek, is involved in that case as one of the disputing parties.Teek has been representing his minor daughter, who is a part owner of Old Man Fishing, in Old Man Fishing’s business dealings.Two anchors of the Supreme Court bench over the past five years, Judges Fred Chomba and Bryan O’Linn, have been reappointed as Acting Judges of Appeal for another year from the start of September.Additional Acting Judges of Appeal who have been appointed all serve on the High Court bench at the moment.They are Judge President Petrus Damaseb, Acting Judge Simpson Mtambanengwe – a past Acting Chief Justice of Namibia – and Judges Mavis Gibson and Gerhard Maritz.All of them were appointed as Acting Judges of Appeal for a year starting from September 1.It is the first time that Judge President Damaseb has been chosen to hear appeals in the Supreme Court and help make decisions on petitions to the court for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.Judges Mtambanengwe, Gibson and Maritz have all been serving as Acting Judges of Appeal, in addition to serving on the High Court bench, in recent years.The Chief Justice’s office also announced that the President appointed the Judge President of South Africa’s Northern Cape High Court, Frans Kgomo, the Judge President of the Bophuthatswana High Court, Mogoeng Mogoeng, and Judge Suretta Snyders from the Transvaal and Witwatersrand Division of the High Court of South Africa to hear one appeal case in the Supreme Court.That case, involving a dispute over shares in a fishing enterprise, Old Man Fishing, will be heard on October 3.Judges are being brought in from outside Namibia because a member of Namibia’s judiciary, Supreme Court Judge of Appeal Pio Teek, is involved in that case as one of the disputing parties.Teek has been representing his minor daughter, who is a part owner of Old Man Fishing, in Old Man Fishing’s business dealings.