Chief Justice Mandisa Maya says achieving a single Judiciary requires cooperation between state institutions, clear implementation plans and urgent action to ensure courts are independent, accessible and effective for South Africans.
More than three decades into South Africa’s constitutional democracy, Chief Justice Mandisa Maya has warned that the Judiciary remains without full institutional independence, saying fragmented administration, resource constraints and delays in reform implementation are undermining efforts to create a single judicial system.
Speaking at the opening of the 2026 Judiciary Conference in Durban on Tuesday, Maya said the Judiciary had travelled a long road since the advent of democracy and had largely upheld its constitutional responsibilities, but institutional independence remained an unfinished project.
“As we have consistently pointed out over the years, this constitutional guarantee has yet to be realised fully because the South African judiciary enjoys only adjudicative independence and institutional independence remains an unfulfilled goal,” Maya said.
The conference, held under the theme “Towards a Single, Institutionally Independent, and Accountable Judiciary”, is focused on advancing reforms aimed at creating a unified judicial system with greater administrative and operational independence.
