Following a 12-year battle, the Minister of Justice has been ordered to immediately appoint a white magistrate who has been discriminated against, Beeld reports.

Judge Joseph Raulinga, of the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), sitting as an Equality Court, ruled in favour of Martin Kroukamp who has been acting for more than a decade in the Alberton Magistrate’s Court.

The Magistrates' Commission recommended his appointment as senior magistrate, but then Justice Minister Jeff Radebe intervened, refusing to make the appointment on the grounds it would not further transformation.

However, Raulinga found that the Minister was ‘grasping at straws’ and could not convince the court that the discrimination against Kroukamp was lawful.

‘He did not explain convincingly why he deviated from the commission’s motivations for the candidate.’

Radebe told the commission he was not satisfied with recommendations for a single, white, candidate for positions in Alberton, Durban and Worcester, and directed the commission to advertise the vacancies again.

‘The Minister’s stance in the matter was apparently that a white person would under no condition be appointed as senior magistrate in Alberton, regardless of how hard the Magistrates' Commission tried to persuade him of Kroukamp’s suitability,’ Raulinga found.

The judge said a united society will not be achieved if ‘reverse apartheid’ is applied.

Kroukamp was represented by Solidarity, which welcomed the judgment.

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