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Judicial Service Commission (South Africa)
The Judicial Service Commission is a body specially constituted by the South African Constitution to recommend persons for appointment to the judiciary of South Africa. History In apartheid South Africa, judges were appointed by the President, usually on the direction of the Minister of Justice, and behind closed doors. During the constitutional negotiations, it was decided that the President's power should be moderated by a special body relatively insulated from partisan interests. It was to be composed of a number of politicians, from both the ruling party and the opposition, and non-politicians, and would conduct public interviews. The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) was therefore created by the Interim Constitution. The JSC is now regulated by section 178 of the final Constitution (and by the Judicial Service Commission Act 9 of 1994). Composition In terms of section 178(1) of the Constitution, the JSC is usually composed of 25 members. This membership is divided more or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South African Constitution
The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, it sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of the Government. The current constitution, the country's fifth, was drawn up by the Parliament elected in 1994 in the South African general election, 1994. It was promulgated by President Nelson Mandela on 18 December 1996 and came into effect on 4 February 1997, replacing the Interim Constitution of 1993. The first constitution was enacted by the South Africa Act 1909, the longest-lasting to date. Since 1961, the constitutions have promulgated a republican form of government. Since 1996, the Constitution has been amended by seventeen amendment acts. The Constitution is formally entitled the "Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996." It was previously also numbered as if it were an Act of Parliament—Act No. 108 of 1996—but, since the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President Of South Africa
The president of South Africa is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of South Africa. The president heads the executive branch of the Government of South Africa and is the commander-in-chief of the South African National Defence Force. Between 1961 and 1994, the office of head of state was the State President of South Africa, state presidency. The president is elected by the National Assembly of South Africa, National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament of South Africa, Parliament, and is usually the leader of the largest party, which has been the African National Congress since the first multiracial election was held on 27 April 1994. The Constitution limits the president's time in office to two five-year terms. The first president to be elected under the new constitution was Nelson Mandela. The incumbent is Cyril Ramaphosa, who was elected by the National Assembly of South Africa, National Assembly on 15 February 2018 following the resignation of J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, first post-apartheid election installed Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa. Cyril Ramaphosa, the incumbent national President, has served as President of the ANC since 18 December 2017. Founded on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), the organisation was formed to agitate, by moderate methods, for the rights of black South Africans. When the National Party (South Africa), National Party government came to power 1948 South African general election, in 1948, the ANC's central purpose became to oppose the new government's policy of institutionalised apartheid. To this end, its methods and means of organisation shifted; its adoption of the techn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albie Sachs
Albert "Albie" Louis Sachs (born 30 January 1935) is a South African lawyer, activist, writer, and former judge appointed to the first Constitutional Court of South Africa by Nelson Mandela. Early life and education Albie Sachs was born on 30 January 1935 in Johannesburg at the Florence Nightingale Hospital to Emil Solomon "Solly" Sachs, General Secretary to the Garment Workers' Union of South Africa, and Rachel "Ray" (née Ginsberg) Sachs (later Edwards). Both his mother and father fled to South Africa as children with parents who were escaping persecution against Jews in Lithuania. Sachs shared that at the time they left, the antisemitism had become so violent that "Every Easter, the Cossacks would ride into the villages and say, "'The Jews killed Christ, we're going to kill the Jews.' And my grandparents and others were fleeing into the forests and basements of buildings... so they wanted to escape." Both of his parents were politically active and his father expressed the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitutional Court Of South Africa
The Constitutional Court of South Africa is a supreme court, supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa, and is the apex court in the South African judicial system, with general jurisdiction. The Court was first established by the South African Interim Constitution, Interim Constitution of 1993, and its first session began in February 1995. It has continued in existence under the Constitution of South Africa, Constitution of 1996. The Court sits in the city of Johannesburg. After initially occupying commercial offices in Braamfontein, it now sits in a purpose-built complex on Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, Constitution Hill. The first court session in the new complex was held in February 2004. Originally the final appellate court for constitutional matters, since the enactment of the Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa, Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution in 2013, the Constitutional Court has jurisdiction to hear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a Universal suffrage, fully representative democratic election. Presidency of Nelson Mandela, His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by fostering racial Conflict resolution, reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialism, socialist, he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997. A Xhosa people, Xhosa, Mandela was born into the Thembu people, Thembu royal family in Mvezo, Union of South Africa. He studied law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand before working as a lawyer in Johannesburg. There he became involved in anti-colonial and African ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Bizos
George Bizos ( el, Γιώργος Μπίζος; 14 November 19279 September 2020) was a Greek-South African human rights lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in South Africa. He was noted for representing Nelson Mandela during the Rivonia Trial. He instructed Mandela to add the qualification "if needs be" to his trial address, which is credited with sparing him from a sentence of death. Bizos also represented the families of anti-apartheid activists killed by the government, throughout the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Early life Bizos was the son of Antonios "Antoni" Bizos, the mayor of the small village of Vasilitsi, south of Koroni and Kalamata on the Messenia peninsula of the Peloponnese, Greece. He was born on 14 November 1927, although this was erroneously recorded on his South African identity documents as 1928, owing to his father's declaration to the authorities upon arrival in Egypt. In May 1941 at the age of thirteen, Bizos and his f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 the highest appellate court in the country. The Supreme Court of South Africa was dissolved in 1997 when the current Constitution of South Africa came into force. The provincial and local divisions, as well as the supreme courts of the former TBVC states ("Bantustans"), became separate High Courts, while the Appellate Division became the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). The High Courts were subsequently restructured by the Superior Courts Act, 2013 into nine provincial divisions of a single High Court of South Africa. The SCA is no longer the highest court because it is subordinate to the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court. History The Supreme Court was created by the South Africa Act 1909 when the Union of South Africa was formed. ... [...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 who served as the Chief Justice of South Africa and the Chief Justice of Namibia, and co-authored the constitution of Namibia. Early life Mahomed was born in Pretoria; his parents were Indian immigrant merchants. He graduated from Pretoria Indian Boys' High School in 1950. He received his BA from University of the Witwatersrand in 1953 and the following year received his BA (Hons) with distinction in political science. He finished his Bachelor of Laws in 1957. Career Mahomed was refused admission to the Pretoria Bar Association, as it was reserved for white lawyers, but was able to join the Johannesburg Bar Association. However, because of the Group Areas Act, he was banned from getting a Chambers of his own, and had to join the Chambers of a White Senior Advocate. In the 1960s he was briefed extensively to appear in matters in Botswana, Lesotho, and Rhodesia, being briefed mostly in matter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tholie Madala
Tholakele "Tholie" Madala (13 July 1937 – 25 August 2010) was a judge in the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He was appointed to the bench in 1994 by Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 .... He retired in 2008. References 1937 births 2010 deaths South African judges Judges of the Constitutional Court of South Africa {{SouthAfrica-law-bio-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Goldstone
Richard Joseph Goldstone (born 26 October 1938) is a South African former judge. After working for 17 years as a commercial lawyer, he was appointed by the South African government to serve on the Transvaal Supreme Court from 1980 to 1989 and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa from 1990 to 1994. 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 apartheid to multiracial democracy in the early 1990s, he headed the influential Goldstone Commission investigations into political violence in South Africa between 1991 and 1994. Goldstone's work enabled mul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurie Ackermann
Lourens Wepener Hugo "Laurie" Ackermann (b 14 January 1934) is a former justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, where he served from 1994 to 2004. Ackermann was born in Pretoria, South Africa and he matriculated from Pretoria Boys High School in 1950. He studied law at Stellenbosch and Oxford University, where he went in 1954 as a Cape Rhodes Scholar. Laurie served on the Lesotho Court of Appeal from 1988 to 1992 and as the Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...n Supreme Court's acting judge of appeal from 1991 to 1992. He is married to Denise and has three children. Ackermann was appointed to the newly formed Constitutional Court in 1994 after his nomination by President Nelson Mandela. He is an honorary fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
