Yvonne Thokozile Mbatha (born 19 July 1960) is a South African

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

of the Supreme Court of Appeal. Before her appointment to the Supreme Court, she was a judge of the

KwaZulu-Natal High Court The KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The main seat of the division is at Pietermaritzburg, while a subordinate local seat ...

from June 2011 to June 2019. She was an acting judge in the Constitutional Court between August and December 2022.

Early life and education

Mbatha was born on 19 July 1960 in Newcastle in the former

Natal Province The Province of Natal (), commonly called Natal, was a province of South Africa from May 1910 until May 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. During this period rural areas inhabited by the black African population of Natal were organized into ...

(present-day

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

). She attended

Inkamana High School Inkamana High School is in Vryheid, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. It was started in 1923 and had 200 boarding students in 2009. History Inkamana is recognised as a historic school. It is situated in the heart of the Zululand. Inkamana High Scho ...

in Vryheid from 1974 to 1976 and then St. Francis College in Mariannhill from 1977 until her matriculation in 1978. She completed her BProc at the

University of Zululand The University of Zululand or UniZulu is the only comprehensive tertiary educational institution north of the Tugela River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Its new status is in accordance with South Africa's National Plan for Higher Education ...

in 1979; later, in 2021, she obtained a postgraduate diploma in maritime studies from the

University of KwaZulu-Natal The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville. ...

Career as an attorney

Mbatha was admitted as an attorney on 28 April 1987, and she spent most of her legal career practicing in her hometown of Newcastle. During this period, she was a member of the

Electoral Court An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

during the first post-apartheid elections of 1994, a commissioner in Small Claims Court from 1998 to 2003, vice-president of the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society from 2006 to 2007, and a legal advisor to the Newcastle Local Municipality from 2005 to 2010. She was also invited to serve as an acting judge in the

Pietermaritzburg High Court The KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The main seat of the division is at Pietermaritzburg, while a subordinate local seat ...

in 2005–2006 and in 2010–2011.

KwaZulu-Natal High Court: 2011–2019

In May 2011, President

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-aparth ...

appointed Mbatha permanently to the

; she joined the bench on 1 June 2011. Among the high-profile cases before Mbatha was ''State v Ngubane and Others'', in which nine men were convicted of killing three people during a spree of ATM bombings in KwaZulu-Natal. In October 2016, Mbatha sentenced them to lengthy prison sentences, including three life sentences. However, the convictions were overturned on appeal, with the appellate judges raising serious concerns about the quality of the evidence against the defendants; among other things, they noted that the prosecutor had himself admitted in argument that there was insufficient evidence to convict three of the men. During her eight years on the High Court, Mbatha spent almost a full year as an acting judge in the Supreme Court of Appeal from December 2016 to November 2017. In this capacity, in 2017, she wrote a minority judgement in ''Mahaeeane and Another v AngloGold Ashanti Ltd'', a case in which

silicosis Silicosis is a form of occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust. It is marked by inflammation and scarring in the form of nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs. It is a type of pneumoconiosis. Silicos ...

-affected mineworkers sought health and safety records from their former employer, AngloGold Ashanti; Mbatha dissented from the majority's interpretation of the requirements of the Promotion of Access to Information Act. Also during this period, Mbatha joined the South African chapter of the

International Association of Women Judges The International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) is a feminist non-profit non governmental organization founded in 1991 whose members are judges from around the world committed to equal justice for women. History The IAWJ was founded in 1991 a ...

in 2017, and she served as the organisation's provincial coordinator for KwaZulu-Natal between 2018 and 2020. In April 2018, the Judicial Service Commission shortlisted and interviewed Mbatha as one of nine candidates for three permanent positions on the Supreme Court of Appeal, but her candidacy did not succeed. Much of the interview centred on Mbatha's sentencing decision in ''S v Ngubane''.

Supreme Court of Appeal: 2019–present

In February 2019, the Judicial Service Commission shortlisted Mbatha again for permanent appointment to one of five new vacancies on the Supreme Court of Appeal. On that occasion, her interview was unusually brief – less than 20 minutes – and the Commission recommended her for appointment. After her appointment was confirmed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, she joined the Supreme Court of Appeal on 1 June 2019. She was an acting judge in the Constitutional Court between August and December 2022.

Early life and education

Career as an attorney

KwaZulu-Natal High Court: 2011–2019

Supreme Court of Appeal: 2019–present

References

External links