Law
Qobo Ningiza bit.ly/3sxFRm5
Current position: Law clerk at the Constitutional Court of South Africa
Past position: Paralegal Secretary at First National Bank
Academic history: 2018 Bachelor of Laws (LLB) at UCT 2015 Bachelor of Arts specialising in Law at North West University
How did you obtain your current position, and what challenges did you face in finding employment? A friend of mine who worked at the Constitutional Court last year alerted me to an advert which called for applications for the 2021 intake. I reluctantly applied, doubtful whether I would be considered because of the very competitive nature of the application process. I applied nonetheless and got selected to interview with two judges, one of whom picked me as a clerk. I went through a very difficult period of unemployment [after graduation]. I applied at many companies but many of them did not respond. When they did, it was usually bad news. I took a lot of psychological strain from the application processes, demotivated and getting hopeless. I started believing it could be that companies were reluctant to hire me because they saw hiring a deaf person to be risky since virtually all of the companies I applied at had never had a deaf person in their employ and I would have been the first. And when I mentioned the requirements that would be necessary for my accommodation, I feared that I may have pushed them away.
What do your day-to-day responsibilities look like? I have the most challenging daily responsibilities at the Constitutional Court, which are all very important for the administration of justice. I get involved in virtually everything the judge does. I conduct research on behalf of the judge, attend hearings on every case that is heard by the court and make sure to take very good notes during the hearing, draft comments on pending judgments, check referencing, spelling and grammatical errors in judgments before they are finalised and made public, handle new applications that come in to Court and attend clerks’ seminars on specific cases.
140 / CAREERS SERVICE GUIDE 2021
