People sometimes hear “magistrates want more money” and switch off. Please don’t. This is about whether a judicial officer can sit without fear because the bond is unpaid, the medical aid is thin, and retirement looks like a cliff.
From 1 April 2025 the gazetted total package of a magistrate is R1,209,303 a year. A High Court judge’s package is R2,194,917. That is a gap of almost a million rand, before you count the different pension and after-service rules. Both benches received a 4.1 percent cost-of-living adjustment. Public servants on levels 1 to 12 received 5.5 percent.
Office | Package from 1 April 2025 | |
Chief Justice | R 3,376,765 | |
Judge of the High Court | R 2,194,917 | |
Regional Magistrate / Chief Magistrate | R 1,578,535 | |
Magistrate | R 1,209,303 |
Van Rooyen v The State 2002 (5) SA 246 (CC) already said magistrates are judicial officers, and that independence includes the conditions in which they serve. Section 165(4) puts the duty to protect that dignity on the State. A 4.1 percent sticker on an old structure is not that duty done.
JASA’s ask has not changed: a real structural review, a dedicated pension arrangement, long-service recognition, and security and transport that match the risk of the work. The marches to Parliament last October were not a strike. They were a public reminder that the Constitution’s promise has a cost, and that cost is being carried privately by the bench.
Retirement does not close the book
In June, after news that a chief magistrate had retired following a high-profile striking-off, Mr Karikan was asked on television whether retirement is a free pass. His answer was gentle and firm. No. He also said it was not as if the magistrate had done anything wrong in the first instance. Both parts are JASA policy. We do not try colleagues on the evening news. We also do not accept that walking off the roll ends the reach of the Magistrates’ Commission.
A kindly reminder
Accountability is a file, a hearing and a right to be heard. It is not a WhatsApp group. Please do not comment on a colleague’s reserved matter or on a complaint that is still with the Commission.