Judge Mandisa Maya will be South Africa's first female president of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) after Monday's announcement that President Jacob Zuma had nominated her for the post.

Maya was deputy president of the court – also the first female to hold that position – and officially replaces Judge Lex Mpati who retired in 2016.

"President Jacob Zuma has, in terms of Section 174(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, nominated Madam Justice Mandisa Muriel Lindelwa Maya as the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal," said Zuma in a statement.

Maya was appointed an acting judge of the High Court in 1999 and a full time judge in 2000.

She has acted as a judge at the Labour Court, the SCA and the Constitutional Court before being appointed in 2006 as an SCA judge.

In 2015, she was appointed as the first female deputy president of the SCA and, with her latest appointment, makes history again.

According to the Constitution, the president of the SCA is appointed by the (SA) president after consultation with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

Zuma has informed the chairperson of the JSC, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, about his decision to nominate 52-year-old Maya as SCA president.

"We wish Justice Maya all the best as the selection process unfolds," said Zuma.

According to Maya's CV, her journey to the SCA started as an attorney's clerk in Mthatha in 1987.

She went on to become a court interpreter, prosecutor, state law advisor, a law lecturer and a practising advocate.

She started gracing the bench as an acting judge of the High Court in Cape Town and the Mthatha High Court in 1999 and has also worked in the Supreme Court of Namibia and the Appeal Court in Lesotho.