Edwin Leslie King SC (25 September 1929 – 28 May 2015) known as 'Sharkey', was a judge of the

High Court of South Africa The High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law in South Africa. It is divided into nine provinces of South Africa, provincial divisions, some of which sit in more than one location. Each High Court division has general jurisdiction ov ...

and Judge President of the

Western Cape High Court The Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa (previously named the Cape Provincial Division and the Western Cape High Court, and commonly known as the Cape High Court) is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over the ...

Early life and education

King was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

on 25 September 1929, and immigrated to South Africa as a young child. He was educated at Western Province Preparatory School where he started as a boarder in 1936, aged six and in 1943, he went on to St. Andrew's College in

Grahamstown Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...

. King received his tertiary education at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

where he obtained his law degree.

Career

King started practicing as an

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. List of country legal systems, Different countries and legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a ba ...

at the

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope (), commonly referred to as the Cape Province () and colloquially as The Cape (), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Co ...

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

in 1956. In 1977, he took

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

and continued to practice until 1986. Shortly after taking silk and in 1978, he was appointed acting judge for the first time. He regularly served as an acting judge, also at the

Natal Provincial Division The KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court, superior court of law with general jurisdiction over the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The main seat of the division is at Pietermaritzburg, while a subord ...

and in 1986, he was permanently appointed as judge of the

Cape Provincial Division The Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa (previously named the Cape Provincial Division and the Western Cape High Court, and commonly known as the Cape High Court) is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over the ...

of the

Supreme Court of South Africa The Supreme Court of South Africa was a superior court of law in South Africa from 1910 to 1997. It was made up of various provincial and local divisions with jurisdiction over specific geographical areas, and an Appellate Division which was th ...

. In 1994, he served on the Special Electoral Court which oversaw the 1994 South African elections. In 1997, King was appointed Deputy Judge President of the Western Cape High Court and in 1998, he was appointed Judge President of the court. He retired in 2000.

King Commission

On 5 May 2000, the South African President

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Cong ...

appointed a Commission of Inquiry into Cricket Match Fixing and Related Matters, with King as chairman. The commission, known as the King Commission, investigated the issue of match-fixing by various South African cricketers and received wide publicity, partly as a result of the actions of the South African captain

Hansie Cronje Wessel Johannes Cronje (25 September 1969 – 1 June 2002) was a South African international cricketer and captain of the South Africa national cricket team in the 1990s. A right-handed all-rounder, as captain Cronje led his team to victory in 2 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Edwin 1929 births 2015 deaths 20th-century South African judges University of Cape Town alumni Alumni of St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown English emigrants to South Africa South African Senior Counsel Lawyers from London