On Friday 12 October, the Democratic Governance & Rights Unit (DGRU) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) laid a formal complaint with the office of the Commission for Gender Equality, on behalf of UCT and Sonke Gender Justice Network (Sonke) calling on the Commission to investigate the lack of gender transformation in the judiciary.

Research conducted by the DGRU reveals that:

• Constitutional Court: Only two of eleven justices are female.

• Supreme Court of Appeal: only 7 female judges out of the sitting 24 judges.

• High Courts and Labour Court: Of 199 judges, only 46 are women. The worst statistics are from the North and South Gauteng High Courts where there are only 18 female judges out of the total number of 79, which is only 22%.

Speaking in Cape Town shortly after having laid the complaint, DGRU Researcher Tabeth Masengu said: