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Parliament’s Select Committee on Security and Justice got an earful this week, and not the pleasant kind. Turns out, a few magistrates have been quietly vanishing from their jobs for years, all while the taxpayer footed the bill.
On Wednesday, the Magistrates Commission updated the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), The Citizen reported, and what followed was basically a greatest-hits compilation of absenteeism, alleged misconduct, and wildly creative sick notes.
First up on the roll call of shame was Secunda District Court’s T.K. Kekana.
According to Secretary of the Magistrates Commission, Maristhane Justice Finger (yes, really), Kekana’s rap sheet includes failing to submit required stats, dodging official working hours, and cosying up to litigants, even meeting them at their businesses.
She also played part-time mediator, casually removed cases from the roll without proper checks, and ignored several warnings.
Kekana was handed a provisional suspension letter on 27 June 2024 after ghosting on her chance to explain why she shouldn’t be shown the door. Her formal suspension landed in March 2025, but don’t worry, she still had time to stall. A February hearing was postponed when the presiding officer landed in the hospital. Then, in June, Kekana suddenly remembered she needed a lawyer.
“The matter will only proceed in August,” Finger said, sounding like someone who’s been here before.
Then there’s Magistrate Natasha Naude from Kimberley, who managed to vanish from the bench just six months into her post back in March 2022.
“She began not coming to work, reasons being that she is suffering from stress related to separation from her children, who are in Cape Town, where she’s from,” Finger told the committee.
Naude, who has now officially depleted her sick and vacation leave, submitted a medical report citing major depressive disorder but made sure to note that the issue was with her surroundings, not her capabilities. She requested a transfer to the Western Cape. The Commission wasn’t convinced.
“The commission… came to the conclusion that she is incapacitated due to ill-health,” Finger said.
She was notified in November 2023 and… never replied, even after an extension. She did, however, apply for posts in Paarl and Cape Town, but didn’t include a motivation letter and got snubbed.
Finger noted that the old transfer system was scrapped after too many magistrates tried the “buyer’s remorse” route, asking to move once they were already placed.
“This up and down movement places an administrative burden on the commission,” he sighed.
Now for the headliner: Booysens Magistrate E.S.S. Fredericks has been AWOL since November 2019. Yes, 2019. All while still collecting a full salary.
Finger said the commission only found out about this gem during a leave management meeting in April 2024. Naturally, the ethics committee suggested suspending her and cutting the paychecks.
In August 2024, an affidavit and some photos surfaced suggesting Fredericks may be suffering from a mental illness. But then, in a plot twist, she rocked up to the chief magistrate’s office in May 2025 looking “very well” and fully aware of her paperwork.
So, the commission stopped tiptoeing and recommended that she be suspended and her salary frozen.
“It is not correct that she continues to receive her salary, which we do not know what even happens to… if the report is that she may not be well,” Finger told MPs.
“Her abscondment is detrimental to the smooth running of the court.”
ANC MP Phiroane Phala said of Kekana that “She’s not acting in line with the oath of office”, while DA MP Mzamo Billy mentioned how “The minister and the commission should be able to ensure we are not paying for someone who is sitting at home for months or years.”
EFF’s Virgill Gericke played the cautious card, warning against slashing salaries prematurely: “There must be fairness in the entire proceedings,” he said.
DA MP Nicholas Gotsell wasn’t buying Naude’s excuses, though, saying, “It would set an incredibly bad precedent if people were to be accommodated to alternative positions if they didn’t accept a first position in good faith.”
Still, Gericke reminded the room that her mental health should count for something. Meanwhile, Billy stressed that “due processes be followed. We don’t want to be caught offside at some point.”
Finger insisted that the commission had played by the book. Blendynn Williams, Head of the Office of the Deputy Minister of Justice, backed the call to remove Naude, saying she met the threshold.
In the end, the committee endorsed all the commission’s recommendations, including suspending Fredericks’ salary.
Oh, and just in case you were wondering why all of this stings, magistrates in South Africa earn between R1.16 million and R1.69 million a year, according to a 2024 government gazette.
That’s a whole lot of public money being spent on disappearing acts.
[Source: Citizen]
