(Archive photo: Anja van der Merwe/Maroela Media)
By Marecia Damons for GroundUp
More than 300 court rulings are officially late – the highest number since GroundUp began reporting on the issue when it was 87 in December 2018 and 103 in September 2019.
The latest report reflects the situation at the beginning of the third term – 15 August 2025 for the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Labor Court of Appeal. And the start of the third term for the High Court, Labor Courts and Land Court – 21 July.
Judgment was reserved in 1,657 cases, of which 302 cases were outstanding for more than six months, which are classified as late by the Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ). This is an increase from 279 in term 2.
In fact, the judicial norms and standards require that every effort must be made to render a judgment within three months and that judgments should generally not be reserved without a date for delivery.
According to the latest list, the Gauteng division of the Pretoria High Court had the most late judgments, with 55 outstanding for more than six months.
This was followed by the Johannesburg labor court with 51 late judgments and the Durban labor court with 31. The North-West division in Mahikeng and the KwaZulu-Natal division in Pietermaritzburg follow with 24 and 22 respectively.
Some courts have no late rulings. This includes the Electoral Court, Labor Court of Appeal, Competition Court of Appeal and the Mpumalanga regional division in Middelburg.
The country’s highest court is not setting the best example. According to the latest list, the Constitutional Court had the highest proportion of late judgments. Thirteen of 21 cases before the court were outstanding, one of which was outstanding for more than a year.
Retired KwaZulu-Natal judge Anton van Zyl had the judgment that was the longest pending – more than four years late before a decision was delivered in November 2025.
Acting Judge Sandile Kuboni issued three late rulings. All three have been outstanding since June and July 2021, making them the next longest cases outstanding.
Acting Judge MP Kumalo of the Johannesburg Labor Court had the most late rulings, with 26 cases outstanding. This was followed by Judge Andrew Reddy of the North-West Division in Mahikeng, with nine, and Acting Judge Mpontshana of the KwaZulu-Natal Division in Pietermaritzburg, with eight.
The OCJ’s latest report is itself late. It was only made public on 27 March 2026, almost six months after the end of the third court term (September 2025). Reports were previously published regularly at the end of each term.
The OCJ said it “endeavours to issue the reports on reserved judgments as soon as they are available for publication”. The information is “collected manually” and undergoes “an extensive review process by the judiciary before it can be published”.
The OCJ said the judiciary “accounts to the South African public through the annual judiciary report”, which is issued on Judiciary Day and includes “statistics and analysis” on reserved judgments.
- This reported originally appeared on GroundUp and is used with permission.