South Africa appoints a woman as chief justice for the first time

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa appointed its first female chief justice on Thursday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa named Mandisa Maya, the current deputy chief justice, as the country's new most senior judge. Her term is due to start on Sept. 1, when she will replace Chief Justice Raymond Zondo as the head of the apex Constitutional Court. Zondo is retiring.

Maya, 60, previously served as the judge president of the Supreme Court of Appeal, the second-highest court in South Africa, before her promotion to the Constitutional Court. She was the first Black woman to be appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal and the first woman to be appointed deputy president and then president of that court.

Ramaphosa nominated Maya for chief justice in February and she was interviewed by the Judicial Services Commission in May. The commission recommended her and noted her appointment "would be a significant milestone for the country,” Ramaphosa said in a statement.

Maya grew up in a rural part of South Africa's Eastern Cape province. She won a Fulbright Scholarship in 1989 to do a Master's in law at Duke University in the United States, an incredibly rare achievement for a young Black woman during the apartheid era of racial segregation in South Africa.

She said in an interview in 2017 that initially she intended to study medicine but changed her mind on the first day she attended university in South Africa and switched to law after looking at a medical textbook.

South Africa has had all-male chief justices since the post was created in 1910 when it was still a British colony.

Maya will be the eighth chief justice since South Africa became a democracy with the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994.

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FILE - A man walks downstairs outside the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg, South Africa, on May 15, 2017. President Cyril Ramaphosa named Mandisa Maya, the current deputy chief justice, as the country's new senior judge. Her term is due to start on Sept. 1. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's government has revoked permission for Brazil to serve as custodian of Argentina's diplomatic missions in the country, alleging several anti-government opponents holed up for months in the Argentine ambassador's residence had been plotting terrorist acts from the compound.

In a statement Saturday, Venezuela's foreign ministry said it had notified Brazil of its decision, which will take effect immediately. It said it was forced to take action based on what it called evidence — which it hasn't shared — that those who sought refuge in Argentina's diplomatic mission were plotting.

Magalli Meda, the former campaign chief of opposition leader María Corina Machado, was among a half dozen government opponents who fled to the Argentina ambassador’s residence after Maduro’s chief prosecutor in March issued an order for her arrest for allegedly propagating destabilizing, political violence.

In retaliation, Maduro broke off diplomatic relations with Argentine President Javier Milei’s right-wing government, which tapped neighbor Brazil to represent its interests and safeguard the asylum seekers.

There was no immediate response from Argentina or Brazil.

Since Friday, armored vehicles from the SEBIN political police have been parked outside the Argentina ambassador’s residence in a leafy Caracas neighborhood. Electricity to the diplomatic mission was also cut, according to Meda, who has taken to social media to denounce what she fears is an impending raid to arrest her and the other government opponents.

Police guard Argentina's embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)