Chief Justice nominee Judge Sandile Ngcobo broke the ice at the Judicial Service Committee interviews on Sunday by declaring his past ownership of a Chicken Licken franchise.

"The business, and fears that it might come back home to roost, I feel, I feel I should just discuss that," said Ngcobo, setting off a wave of laughter at the Walter Sisulu hall in Kliptown, Soweto.

He said he was reminded of the business he owned with a few friends in 1992 when he passed one on the way to Sunday's interviews.

The franchise did not take off but he felt he should mention it, it terms of a question on past interests.

The hearings began with a private session, after which outgoing Chief Justice Pius Langa asked that cameras be removed, but that sound may be recorded. He also voiced concerns about quotes being isolated and sensationalised.

He sat by himself at the top of a rectangle of judicial service commissioners, which included advocates Andiswa Ndoni and Marumo Moerane, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe and Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille.

Ngcobo said he heard that President Jacob Zuma had proposed him as chief justice and that nobody else had been nominated. With his family present, Ngcobo proceeded to describe the Constitutional Court as one wielding enormous power.

As chief justice he worked with 10 other judges who gave people approaching the court a sense that they had been heard.

Although first prize would be to get a unanimous judgment on a matter before them, "gold" was for each member of the court to have expressed their views.

The top position involved not only managing that court, and the diverse views of 10 other judges, but also of protecting the integrity of the judiciary, as well as swearing in presidents.

With 30 years in court behind him, he spoke of how his career included being a clerk, an interpreter and a prosecutor.

He said most recently he had been delivering seminars to magistrates throughout the country on writing judgments and had had the opportunity to hear the issues of magistrates in all corners of South Africa.