The President of JASA has not been whispering. He has been live. The clips below are the public record of what this alliance has said to South Africa on SABC News, on SABC’s Case in Point, on Morning Live, and on Newzroom Afrika. Watch them with the volume up. They are the same cloth as this newsletter: magistrates are judicial officers; retirement is not a shield; the pay gap is a structural fact; a prosecutor who is unprotected is a court that cannot sit; open justice and a fair trial have to live in the same room.
SABC News Case in Point — the studio from which the Alliance has spoken on open justice, fair-trial rights and the live broadcast of high-profile criminal
trials.
Broadcast | What Mr Karikan put on the record | Watch |
SABC News — 29 Apr 2024 | Pay gap and workload. The lowest-paid magistrate should be pegged at least at 50% of a judge, as the Commission’s own research once accepted. | youtube.com/watch?v=_NRzarMTWzo |
Newzroom Afrika — 3 Jul 2025 | The gap has not moved. A letter of demand went to the President. A special general meeting was called on litigation. | youtube.com/watch?v=RE35H3pc9Lg |
Newzroom Afrika — 5 Aug 2025 | Accountability for judicial officers is welcome. The JSC is the file for judges; the Magistrates’ Commission is the file for magistrates. JASA will not try the merits on television. | youtube.com/watch?v=CIEy39lcA0w |
CapeTalk / Lester Kiewit — 26 Nov 2025 | Why criminal courts miss the 75% finalisation target: investigation, witnesses, Legal Aid, s 342A. Weinberg and Athlone as security warnings. | youtube.com/watch?v=nOiahAa8y6E |
SABC News — 18 May 2026 | Sibanyoni matter struck off the roll. A warrant for a no-show prosecutor is not ordinary. The court still has to sit. | youtube.com/watch?v=ObXvrtNrmpY |
SABC Case in Point — 28 May 2026 | Personal security for prosecutors on high-profile matters is not a perk. It is how a roll keeps a witness alive. | x.com/SABCNews/status/2060069185082839136 |
Newzroom Afrika — 1 Jun 2026 | Retirement is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. High Court judges are judges for life. Lower-court judicial officers are the same cloth. | youtube.com/watch?v=on4m-v1ULhM |
SABC Morning Live — 17 Apr 2026 | Judicial independence is not a slogan. Politicising a magistrate from a podium is how a court loses the room. | x.com/MorningLiveSABC/status/ 2044985658150719672 |
SABC Case in Point — 20 Aug 2026 | After a three-week restriction, live broadcast of a high-profile corruption trial. Open justice and fair- trial rights have to share a courtroom. | x.com/SABCNews/status/2090502781392060667 |
These appearances are not a substitute for a structural review. They are how a country hears that the officer who finalises most of its criminal work is still arguing for a machine that records, a package that matches the oath, and a Commission that can finish a complaint before the colleague retires. If a station invites JASA again this spring, the answer will be yes.
“That must change. It cannot be. We have disgruntled magistrates.”
— Mr Karikan, Newzroom Afrika, on junior prosecutors earning more than senior magistrates