In June 1994, Arthur Chaskalson, senior counsel and the national director of the Legal Resources Centre, was appointed as President of the Constitutional Court by President Nelson Mandela, in consultation with the cabinet and the chief justice of the time, Judge Michael Corbett.

Then began the process to select the Court's other 10 members. The appointment process, set out in the interim constitution, required the president - again, in consultation with the cabinet and the chief justice - to appoint four judges from the ranks of the Supreme Court.

The four were Laurie Ackermann, Richard Goldstone, Tholie Madala and Ismail Mohamed.

The president - again after consultation - was then to choose the remaining six judges from a shortlist of 10, sent to him by the Judicial Service Commission. The commission, the members of which are largely drawn from the legal profession and members of Parliament on the basis of proportional representation, was responsible for whittling down the initial list of 100 to 25.

The commission interviewed those on the short list of 25 over four days in October 1994. The interviews lasted about an hour each.

The list was finally reduced to 10 candidates: Justice Johann Kriegler, Justice John Didcott, Advocate Pius Langa SC, Associate Prof Kate O'Regan, Prof Yvonne Mokgoro, Prof Albie Sachs, Prof CJR Dugard, Prof Charles Dlamini SC, Advocate Bernard Ngoepe and Advocate Thembile Skweyiya SC.

Six of these - Kriegler, Didcott, Langa, O'Regan, Mokgoro and Sachs - were appointed to the Court. The judges were each to serve a non-renewable term of seven years.

This period was subsequently extended to a period of between 12 and 15 years, depending on the age of the judge when first appointed as a judge.