[1] After high school, he was served in the South African Defence Force before enrolling at the University of the Witwatersrand,[2] where he graduated with a BA in 1980 and an LLB in 1983.
[3] In 1989, his home in Yeoville, Johannesburg was firebombed while he was away on holiday; it was unclear whether the attack was intended for Manoim, for his brother (then a member of the Weekly Mail), or for one of his clients, Obed Bapela, who was staying in the house.
[6] He was chairperson for a full ten-year period ending in July 2019, becoming the tribunal's longest-serving member;[1][3] President Zuma reappointed him to a second term in August 2014.
[6] Manoim also presided in a dispute over the Competition Commission's long-running investigation into the so-called rand-rigging scandal, in which a large number of banks were accused of colluding to manipulate the rand; in 2019, he ruled that the commission's complaint against the banks was overly broad and ordered it to remedy the charges.
[17] He was viewed as "a shoo-in",[18] and Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi endorsed his candidacy, describing him as "South Africa's leading expert in competition law".
[20] In December, on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission, President Ramaphosa appointed Manoim to the appellate court with effect from 1 January 2022.
[22] Asked by Julius Malema, a member of the panel, whether it was appropriate for the Judicial Service Commission to have shortlisted only "one white male", Manoim said, "I cannot help that other people have not applied.
Manoim denied this, pointing out that judges were rarely permitted to accept the lengthy secondments that competition matters required and promising that he wanted to "build the court" as its president.