Jafta was born in the present-day Matatiele, Eastern Cape, and began his legal career as a civil servant in the Transkei bantustan from 1983 to 1988, including as a magistrate from 1986 to 1988.
He rose rapidly through the judicial ranks and was elevated to the Constitutional Court in 2009 on the appointment of President Jacob Zuma.
[1] He was promoted to District Court prosecutor in Cala in early 1984,[3] but he was demoted in December 1985 for failing to cooperate with the security police and served briefly as an administrative clerk.
[1] On 3 November 2004, President Thabo Mbeki announced that he would elevate Jafta to the Supreme Court of Appeal permanently.
[3] Jafta himself served a stint as an acting justice of the Constitutional Court between December 2007 and May 2008,[1] and by that time he was regarded as a "rising star" in the judiciary.
[8] By September 2009, there were four vacancies on the court – arising from the retirement of Chief Justice Pius Langa and Justices Yvonne Mokgoro, Kate O'Regan, and Albie Sachs – and Jafta was shortlisted for one of them, nominated by the Legal Resources Centre, the Aids Law Project, and fellow Judge of Appeal Kenneth Mthiyane.
[13] By 2013, the Mail & Guardian observed that he was "emerging as one of the main brains on the politically conservative side" of the Constitutional Court bench, which also included Justices Mogoeng and Raymond Zondo.
[25] In 2008, while Jafta was acting in the Constitutional Court, Cape Judge President John Hlophe allegedly approached Jafta and Justice Bess Nkabinde with an attempt to persuade them to find in Jacob Zuma's favour in Thint v NDPP, a case that was pending before the court.
[26] Six years later, however, when the misconduct enquiry against Hlophe was pending, Jafta and Nkabinde brought a court challenge to the tribunal's jurisdiction, saying their own complaint was not legally valid.
[35] However, on 7 June 2016, in a move that "baffled" observers, Jafta and Nkabinde applied to the court for a second time, now asking it to rescind its earlier dismissal order on the grounds that it had been granted erroneously.