RAISING THE BAR

Her vision took her from humble beginnings to ...

Judge Mandisa Maya, president of the Supreme Court of Appeal, became a household name during the notorious JSC hearings to find SA’s new chief justice in February. This week she was endorsed as the frontrunner for deputy chief justice. Naledi Shange and photographer Masi Losi went to the Eastern Cape to speak to those who knew Maya in her youth

In the Eastern Cape village of Xugxwala near Mthatha, where judge Mandisa Maya was raised, her surname is synonymous with successful and highly educated individuals.

Village elder Sam Gqubule, a greybearded farmer, said the Mayas were descendants of a missionary who brought the gospel to the village and built a church and school decades ago.

In February, the Sunday Times visited Xugxwala just after Maya’s appearance before the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) panel tasked with recommending a successor for outgoing chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.

Her aunts, uncles, cousins, representatives from the local school, the local pastor and his wife all gathered at the family homestead to share memories of the woman who grew up among them. Here she is not called by her title or by her surname, she is simply Mandisa or Mandi, the local girl.

The JSC recommended Maya for the chief justice post, but President Cyril Ramaphosa decided to appoint judge Raymond Zondo instead. He later named Maya as his preferred candidate for deputy chief justice, and on Monday the JSC endorsed her appointment.

She will make her mark, said her supporters in Xugxwala. “A disciplined, strict and orderly village girl, who is selfless; a humble, devout member of the church, always giving and helpful to the St Saviour’s Church, the local school and community members,” is how Maya was described by one villager.

Her cousin, Solomon Maya, said she was born in her mother’s homestead of Tsomo but “had her umbilical cord planted in Xugxwala with her people”.

In the middle of Xugxwala, a stone’s throw from the Maya homestead, is a dilapidated one-room building with no roof, a rusty old door and crumbling walls bearing faint patches of dirty pink paint. This is what remains of the Xugxwala primary where Mandisa and Solomon started school.

“This room was our classroom when Mandisa and I were in standard 2 [grade 4] in 1972,” said Solomon.

“It was the missionary school established by our great-great-grandfather.”

Mandisa moved the next year to attend schools outside the village, because of her father’s work commitments. He was a radio personality and her mother a teacher.

The classroom that Mandisa sat in four decades ago is the only part of the original building that remains. A new school has been built metres away.

Solomon fondly recalled teacher Tutu Madyibi, who left to study law and was an early inspiration for his cousin.

“When she died in 2021, she was an attorney with her own practice,” said Solomon.

In 1978, Mandisa was enrolled at St John’s College, a prestigious Anglican school in Mthatha, where she completed matric in 1980.

In the same way that she made history in 2017 when she became the first woman to hold the position of president of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), she was one of the first group of girls to be admitted to traditionally boys-only school St John’s.

At St John’s, she and Solomon were reunited. Principal Zolisa Magaqa noted that other prominent South Africans who attended the school include businesswoman Gloria Serobe, the late auditorgeneral Kimi Makwetu, Microsoft SA MD Mteto Nyati, musician-turned-politician Ringo Madlingozi and architect Luyanda Mpahlwa.

While showing us around the school, Solomon smiled nostalgically at the tennis court where he became an ace player. Mandisa excelled at softball and karate, but “she was dedicated to her books”, said Solomon.

The Maya cousins went on to enrol as students of the University of the Transkei (Unitra).

“Mandisa and her friend, Nomhle Ncitane, were what we might call zombies for books, and it paid off,” Solomon said. “They lived in the library, while I loved having a good time.”

Solomon became a teacher and later a school principal until his retirement.

Mandisa went on to study law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and later attended Duke University in the US where she obtained her master’s in law.

On her return to SA, she rose through the judicial ranks, starting off as an attorney’s clerk before becoming a court interpreter and then a prosecutor. She became a law adviser before obtaining her pupillage to become an advocate.

In Xugxwala, villagers said success had not changed Mandisa. “She played a crucial role in the expansion of the church and she gives generously,” said a leader of the St Saviour’s Church.

“One thing about her is that she always holds people accountable,” said Ma Mirriam Malephale. According to her, whenever Mandisa contributed to a cause, she followed up to ensure the mission was accomplished.

Her dedication to discipline and order was evident when I first interviewed her in 2017, after her appointment to the SCA. Her office in Bloemfontein was pristine. She made sure the weights in the model of Justice’s scales were perfectly aligned when we photographed her. She might be reserved and softly spoken in her demeanour, but it is obvious to anyone who enters her company that she commands immense respect.

Solomon said that as the eldest daughter in a traditional Xhosa household, Mandisa was not expected to marry. The custom was that she would remain at home and take care of the household.

“Mandisa’s father was not keen for her to marry, but in our culture it is also known that a woman’s journey leads to marriage, and she married,” Solomon said.

“We understood that this was a blessing. She married a gentleman, Dabulamanzi Mlokoti from Benoni, who was originally from Tsomo in the Transkei. He had an interest in farming. Since our families were close in proximity, they chose to settle and build here in this village, knowing that even in their absence there would be someone to take care of their livestock and property. They built their family home right here.”

Maya and Mlokoti have three children, two of whom have followed in their mother’s footsteps and pursued careers in law.

The Maya-Mlokoti homestead is a large grey house with a neatly manicured garden. In the front yard is the sandy pit where Maya liked to cook in three-legged pots.

“Mandi has chickens, goats, sheep and pigs and also farms vegetables,” said Solomon. He walked us around to the back stoep where visitors were hosted and said proudly: “Even justice Raymond Zondo has come here to visit Mandisa.”

Church leader Michael Malephale said Maya’s village ways were still within her.

“When she’s here, you’d be shocked to see her down on her knees outside her house, blowing and fanning a fire.”

Solomon added: “She has a gas stove in her house but when she is here she prefers to cook for her family on a three-legged pot on the fire outside. She will wear the simplest clothing: you wouldn’t even recognise her if you met her in her overalls, being followed by her dogs as she heads to the vegetable patches.”

Maya’s aunt, also called Mandisa and of a similar age, said: “We had a beautiful upbringing, Mandi and I. We would be sent on errands together, especially by her mother, but we grew up under strict hands. We always had to play in sight of the adults and never had any friends. We used to go through magazines and books and pick out houses and all the other things we wanted. I would say that I wanted to be a teacher so that I could smack naughty children, because I was also smacked at school. She dreamt of being a doctor or nurse.”

In our 2017 interview, Maya said she had abandoned her plan of pursuing medicine when she realised she had an aversion to blood. Her father encouraged her to pursue law instead.

Xugxwala villagers hope that Maya’s success will have a ripple effect.

“Imagine what motivation she will be —a girl who came from these rural areas, a poverty-stricken community, but she managed all those obstacles,” said Mzwandile Phatiswa, principal of the new Xugxwala primary school.

“In the same way as we saw development happen in places such as Qunu, where

[Nelson] Mandela is from, we are hopeful that Maya’s success will bring change for us too,” said Phatiswa.

Maya’s extended family, including every villager who knows her name, are looking forward to hosting a huge celebration in her honour when she is instated.