CAPE TOWN — An aspirant judge ruffled feathers during her interview with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) yesterday when she said that transformation of the judiciary will be complete only when “the Zumas of this world” brief black counsel.

Advocate Sita Kolbe SC, an advocate at the Johannesburg bar, argued that the best way of dealing with discrimination is to train black lawyers until they are clients’ natural first choice because they are “brilliant” and perceived as the best money can hire.

“There will only be real transformation in my view one day when the Zumas of this world find themselves in a spot of bother [and] we see a black face representing them and not a white face.”

Kolbe said the problem was underlined by former police commissioner Jackie Selebi’s decision to employ seasoned white advocate Jaap Cilliers to represent him in his corruption trial under way in Johannesburg.

When reprimanded by Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo about her remark about the president, she said she had mentioned Zuma, who called on Kemp J. Kemp SC when he faced corruption charges linked to the arms deal, as an example because he is a prominent person whose choices do not go unnoticed.