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Justice in service of the South African nation
AFTER COMPLETING a BA LLB degree at the University of Cape Town (UCT), Judge Mia chose to complete her LLM degree in 2002 at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Judge Mia says, “UCT focused more on commercial law whereas UWC was focused on community-based law. Because I was a family lawyer and was interested in children’s rights I was attracted to UWC’s Master’s degree programme that focused squarely on children’s rights.”
At the time, the courts treated children as adults within the criminal justice system and they were held in the same cells as adults. The justice system also did not consider children’s voices in disputes related to their care.
Judge Mia worked as a public defender at Legal Aid SA and as a labour law researcher at UWC’s Faculty of Law. While at UWC, she volunteered as a legal advisor at the NICRO Women’s Support Centre in Cape Town. In 1999, she joined Y Ebrahim Attorneys and soon after moved to the legal department at the South Peninsula Municipality. She also practised as a family advocate. In 2002, she moved to the bench, progressing from acting magistrate to senior magistrate, acting Judge and Judge in the Western Cape, Free State and Southern and Northern Gauteng divisions of the High Court. In 2009, she was appointed to the Land Claims Court.
“I spent 18 months at the Land Claims Court and while it was a sharp learning curve, I enjoyed the work because I felt I could really make a diff erence in considering the competing interests of landowners and occupiers, and the rights of people to remain on land they had lived on their whole lives,” says Judge Mia.
“It was a diff erent way of adjudicating disputes. We took the court to the community and engaged the aff ected community through site visits and inspections when considering cases before the court. These visits allowed the communities to tell their stories and their history of land dispossession in South Africa and helped us make informed decisions in court.
“It dawned on me [at this time] that my vision as a child to make a diff erence through the law had been realised,” she says.
She says her studies at UWC provided a lens through which she still views and understands the diff erent contexts of communities, the challenges they face and how the law can assist by dispensing justice.
“I believe this has given me an advantage and has strengthened my convictions to apply the law in service of the community. This is something that is particular to the UWC student experience,” says Judge Mia.
As a female judge, Judge Mia consistently advocates equality for women in the judiciary in South Africa. She is a founding member of the South African chapter of the International Association of Women Judges and has served as Secretary and as Vice-President of the Chapter dealing with programmes.
The judge, who is also a founding member of Shura Yabafazi, a Muslim women’s rights group which advocates for legal recognition of Muslim marriages, says: “The judiciary forms the top 1% of the population in South Africa, so you expect it to not only apply the law but emulate it with regards to gender equality. While we are making inroads towards closing that gap and my appointment does help level the playing fi eld, we still have a long road to travel.
“I want to encourage women to stake their claim in these spaces of leadership, to be aware of stereotyping in the workplace and to call out individuals who perpetuate discrimination. We need to persevere, to be clear about our goals and unwavering in our abilities. But we also need to strive for excellence consistently so that we are not claiming these positions by virtue of being women, but through merit and the value we can contribute.”
