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Chaskalson
Arthur Chaskalson Order of the Baobab, SCOB, (24 November 1931 – 1 December 2012) was President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1994 to 2001 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 2001 to 2005. Chaskalson was a member of the defence team in the Rivonia Trial of 1963. Early life and career Born in Johannesburg, Chaskalson was educated at Hilton College (South Africa), Hilton College and later graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a BCom (1952) and LLB Cum Laude (1954). In 1963, Chaskalson, along with Bram Fischer, Joel Joffe, Harry Schwarz, George Bizos, Vernon Berrangé and Harold Hanson (lawyer), Harold Hanson, was part of the former President Nelson Mandela's defence team in the Rivonia Trial, which saw Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment. Chaskalson left a very successful legal practice to become a human rights lawyer, helping to establish the Legal Resources Centre, a non-profit organisation modeled after the NAACP Legal Defense and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matthew Chaskalson
Matthew Chaskalson Senior counsel, SC (born 12 August 1963) is a South African lawyer and jurist who is best known for his work in South African constitutional litigation, constitutional litigation. He has frequently appeared in the Constitutional Court of South Africa and led evidence at both the Marikana massacre#Official commission of inquiry, Marikana Commission and the Zondo Commission, State Capture Commission. The son of Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson, he was an acting judge in the Constitutional Court for two terms in 2023 and 2024. Early life and education Chaskalson was born on 12 August 1963. He was the eldest of two sons born to Arthur Chaskalson, who was a prominent anti-apartheid lawyer and who later served as Chief Justice of South Africa from 2001 to 2005. He attended King David Schools, Johannesburg, King David School in Linksfield, Johannesburg, where he matriculated in 1980. Thereafter he attended the University of the Witwatersrand, completing a BA in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pius Langa
Pius Nkonzo Langa SCOB (25 March 1939 – 24 July 2013) was Chief Justice of South Africa from June 2005 to October 2009. Formerly a human rights lawyer, he was appointed as a puisne judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa upon its inception in 1995. He was the Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa from November 2001 until May 2005, when President Thabo Mbeki elevated him to the Chief Justiceship. He was South Africa's first black African Chief Justice. The son of a Zulu pastor, Langa left school as a teenager to enter the workforce. Over the next two decades, he studied for his matric certificate while working in a clothing factory and then studied for his legal qualifications while working as a civil servant in the Department of Justice. He left the civil service at the rank of magistrate in 1977, when he was admitted as an advocate. Thereafter he practised law in Durban, specialising in the defence of anti-apartheid activists accused of political offences. He was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fedsure Life Assurance V Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan Council
''Fedsure Life Assurance Ltd and Others v Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan Council and Others'' is an important case in South African law, heard in the Constitutional Court on 18 and 20 August 1998, with judgment handed down 14 October. The bench was occupied by Chaskalson P, Langa DP, Ackermann J, Goldstone J, Kriegler J, Madala J, Mokgoro J, O'Regan J, Sachs J and Yacoob J. DJB Osborn (with him PJ Van Blerk) appeared for the appellants, RM Wise (with him J. Kentridge) for the first respondent, and CZ Cohen (with him M. Chaskalson) for the second, third, fourth and fifth respondent. Principles The interim Constitution recognises and makes provision for three levels of government: national, provincial and local. Each level of government derives its powers from the interim Constitution. In the case of local government, however, the powers are subject to definition and regulation by either the national or the provincial governments, which are the "competent authori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ismail Mahomed
Ismail Mahomed SCOB SC (5 July 1931 – 17 June 2000) was a South African lawyer and jurist who served as the first non-white Chief Justice of South Africa from January 1997 until his death in June 2000. He was also the Chief Justice of Namibia from 1992 to 1999 and the inaugural Deputy President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1995 to 1996. Born in Pretoria to Indian Memon immigrant parents hailing from Ranavav, Mahomed practiced as an advocate in Johannesburg during apartheid, becoming reputed as one of South Africa's foremost litigators in civil rights law and administrative law. In 1974, he became the first non-white advocate to take silk in South Africa. Although apartheid precluded him from judicial appointment in South Africa, he was a judge of appeal in neighbouring Swaziland from 1979 and in neighbouring Lesotho from 1982. He was the co-chairperson of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa in 1991. Also in 1991, as the negotiations to end ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
S V Makwanyane
''S v Makwanyane and Another'' (CCT 3/94) was a landmark 1995 judgment of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. It established that capital punishment was inconsistent with the commitment to human rights expressed in the Interim Constitution. The court's ruling invalidated section 277(1)(a) of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977, which had provided for use of the death penalty, along with any similar provisions in any other law in force in South Africa. The court also forbade the government from carrying out the death sentence on any prisoners awaiting execution, ruling that they should remain in prison until new sentences were imposed. Delivered on 6 June, this was the newly established court's "first politically important and publicly controversial holding." Chance The Court held that, in practice, there was an element of chance at every stage of the process of implementing the death penalty: The outcome may be dependent upon factors such as the way the case is inves ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minister Of Public Works V Kyalami Ridge Environmental Association
''Minister of Public Works and Others v Kyalami Ridge Environmental Association and Others'', an important case in South African law, was decided by the Constitutional Court on May 29, 2001. Facts The South African government established a transit camp on state-owned land which had previously been used as a prison farm. The purpose of the camp was to house those people from the Alexandra Township who had been displaced by severe floods. The intention was that the persons so accommodated would move to permanent housing when such became available, and that the transit camp would then be dismantled. This plan was made without any prior discussions with residents in the area. A residents' association called on the Minister of Public Works to suspend operations, contending that the establishment of the transit camp involved an alteration in the use of the land, and was being carried out in contravention of the Environment Conservation Act and the National Environmental Management A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legal Resources Centre
The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) is a human rights organisation based in South Africa with offices in Johannesburg (including a Constitutional Litigation Unit), Cape Town, Durban and Grahamstown. It was founded in 1979 by a group of prominent South African lawyers, including Arthur Chaskalson, Felicia Kentridge, and Geoff Budlender, under the guidance of American civil rights lawyers Jack Greenberg and Michael Meltsner, then Director-Counsel and former First Assistant Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund respectively. The LRC is a generalist public interest law firm that engages in litigation and other activities across a wide range of focus areas, including the full range of rights in the Constitution of South Africa. The LRC has litigated many of South Africa's landmark human rights cases since its establishment, including major cases resisting apartheid injustices and cases under the new Constitution after 1994. These include S v Makwanyane' (abolishing the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chief Justice Of South Africa
The chief justice of South Africa is the most senior judge of the Constitutional Court and head of the judiciary of South Africa, who exercises final authority over the functioning and management of all the courts. The position of chief justice was created upon the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, with the chief justice of the Cape Colony, Sir (John) Henry de Villiers (later created The 1st Baron de Villiers), being appointed the first chief justice of the newly created Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa. Until 1961, the chief justice held a dormant commission as Officer Administering the Government, meaning that if the governor-general died or was incapacitated the chief justice would exercise the powers and duties of the governor-general. This commission was invoked in 1943 under Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet, and in 1959 and 1961 under Lucas Cornelius Steyn. History and creation of the post The position of chief justice as it stands today ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soobramoney V Minister Of Health, KwaZulu-Natal
''Soobramoney v Minister of Health, KwaZulu-Natal'' is an important judgment of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, delivered in 1997, and the first in which the court had to adjudicate on the universal constitutional right to medical treatment as against the problem of an under-resourced health care system. Facts Thiagraj Soobramoney was terminally ill, suffering from ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, and of limited means. His kidneys had failed in 1996, and his condition had been diagnosed as irreversible. To survive even for a while, he required renal dialysis. After exhausting his funds on private providers, he sought the treatment free from the dialysis program of the Addington Hospital, a state-funded institution in Durban, which rejected him on the grounds that his condition did not fulfill the requirements for eligibility: that he be curable within a short period of time, and that, as for his kidney failure, he be eligible for a kidney transplant. ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rivonia Trial
The Rivonia Trial was a trial that took place in apartheid-era South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964, after a group of anti-apartheid activists were arrested on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. The farm had been the secret location for meetings of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the newly-formed armed wing of the African National Congress. The trial took place in Pretoria at the Palace of Justice and the Old Synagogue. Men who were convicted and sentenced to prison for their activities included Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Denis Goldberg, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni.Church Square, the Old Synagogue and the Old Governmen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Goldstone
Richard Joseph Goldstone (born 26 October 1938) is a South African retired judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from July 1994 to October 2003. He joined the bench as a judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa, first in the Transvaal Provincial Division from 1980 to 1989 and then in the Appellate Division (South Africa), Appellate Division from 1990 to 1994. Before that, he was a commercial lawyer in Johannesburg, where he entered legal practice in 1963 and Senior counsel, took silk in 1976. He is considered to be one of several liberal judges who issued key rulings that undermined apartheid from within the system by tempering the worst effects of the country's racial laws. Among other important rulings, Goldstone made the Group Areas Act – under which non-whites were banned from living in "whites only" areas – virtually unworkable by restricting evictions. As a result, prosecutions under the act virtually ceased. During the transition from aparthe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of The Baobab
The Order of the Baobab is a South African civilian national honour, awarded to those for service in business and the economy; science, medicine, and for technological innovation; and community service. It was instituted on 6 December 2002, and is awarded annually by the President of South Africa. The order is named after the baobab tree, which was chosen as a symbol because of its endurance and tolerance, its vitality, its importance in agro-forestry systems, and its use as a meeting place in traditional African societies. Until the Order of Luthuli and the Order of Ikhamanga were established in 2004, the Order of the Baobab also covered service in the fields now covered by those orders. Current classes The three classes of appointment to the order are, in descending order of precedence: * ''Supreme Counsellor of the Baobab in gold, for exceptional service'' (SCOB) * ''Grand Counsellor of the Baobab in silver, for distinguished service'' (GCOB) * ''Counsellor of the Baobab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
