The Western Cape Division 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 provincial divisions, some of which sit in more than one location. Each High Court division has general jurisdiction over a defined geographical ...
(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
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordanc ...
with
general jurisdiction
{{Globalize, article, USA, 2name=the United States, date=December 2010
A court of general jurisdiction is a court with authority to hear cases of all kinds – criminal, civil, family, probate, and so forth.
United States
All federal courts ar ...
over the
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...
province of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
(except for the
Murraysburg
Murraysburg is an Afrikaans speaking town of approximately 5,000 people in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is situated in the far northeast of the municipality, about from the provincial capital Cape Town, and west of Graaff-Reinet. ...
district which falls within the jurisdiction of the
Eastern Cape Division
The Eastern Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The main seat of the division is at Makhanda, with subordinate local seats at Port Eli ...
). The division, which sits at
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, consists of 31 judges led by Judge President
John Hlophe
Yahya John Mandlakayise Hlophe (born 1 January 1959 in Stanger, KwaZulu-Natal) is Judge President of the Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa.
Background and career
Born in Stanger, Natal, he was educated at the Universi ...
.
History
The origins of the Western Cape Division lie in the Supreme Court of the
Colony of the Cape of Good Hope
The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...
, which was established on 1 January 1828 as the highest court of the Cape Colony. It was created by the
First Charter of Justice,
letters patent
Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...
issued by
George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
on 24 August 1827. Upon the creation of the
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Trans ...
in 1910, the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony was transformed by the
South Africa Act 1909
The South Africa Act 1909 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created the Union of South Africa from the British Cape Colony, Colony of Natal, Orange River Colony, and Transvaal Colony. The Act also made provisions for pote ...
into the Cape of Good Hope Provincial Division of the new
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 t ...
.
Originally the Cape Division had jurisdiction over the whole of the
Cape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...
, although concurrently with the Eastern Cape (
Grahamstown
Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. Makhanda is the lar ...
) and Griqualand West (
Kimberley) Local Divisions in their areas of jurisdiction. However, in 1957 the Eastern Cape division was elevated to the status of a provincial division, and in 1969 the Griqualand West division was similarly elevated, becoming the Northern Cape Division. Upon elevation these divisions became independent from the Cape Division.
When the final
Constitution of South Africa
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 Govern ...
came into force in 1997, the Cape of Good Hope Division of the Supreme Court became a High Court. In 2003, in terms of the
, the area of jurisdiction of the Cape High Court was modified to coincide with the boundaries of the
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...
province. The
Renaming of High Courts Act, 2008
Renaming may refer to:
Place names
* Geographical renaming
* Lists of renamed places
Computing
* Batch renaming
* Great Renaming
* Register renaming
* Rename (computing)
In computing, rename refers to the altering of a name of a file. This ...
renamed it to the "Western Cape High Court, Cape Town". In 2013, in the restructuring brought about by the
Superior Courts Act, it became the Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa.
Judges
The Western Cape Division has a complement of 31 judges. Judges are addressed as "the Honourable Justice", or just "My Lord" or "My Lady". the judges are:
*
John Hlophe
Yahya John Mandlakayise Hlophe (born 1 January 1959 in Stanger, KwaZulu-Natal) is Judge President of the Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa.
Background and career
Born in Stanger, Natal, he was educated at the Universi ...
(Judge President)
*
Jeanette Traverso
Jeanette Helena Margaretha Traverso (; born 28 May 1946) is a former judge of the High Court of South Africa. She is the second female appointed as a judge in South Africa and the first woman to be appointed as a Deputy Judge President of a Divi ...
(Deputy JP)
*
Rosheni Allie
*
Elizabeth Baartman
*
Ashley Binns-Ward
*
André Blignault
*
Leonard Bozalek
*
Dennis Davis
Dennis Davis (August 28, 1949 – April 6, 2016) was an American drummer and session musician best known for his work with David Bowie, playing on ten albums - including seven successive studio albums - during the singer's classic mid- and late ...
*
Siraj Desai Siraj may refer to:
* Siraj region, an area of Jammu, India
* Siraj (director), Indian film director
* Siraj (name), a list of notable people with Siraj as a given name or surname
* ''Siraj'' (1948 film), a 1948 Indian film directed by Phani Sarma ...
*
Daniel Dlodlo
*
Nathan Erasmus
*
Chantal Fortuin
*
Burton Fourie
*
Patric Gamble
*
Patricia Goliath
Honorable Deputy Judge President Patricia Lynette Goliath (born 15 October 1964) is a judge of the High Court of South Africa and the Deputy Judge President of the Western Cape High Court. Deputy Judge President Goliath acted as a Constitutiona ...
*
Barend Griesel
*
Robert Henney
*
Andre le Grange
*
Willem Louw
Lieutenant-General Willem Petrus Louw (Bloemhof, 24 November 1920 – 4 July 1980) was a South African military commander. He joined the South African Army in the Special Service Battalion in 1938, and served in Italy in World War II.
Mil ...
*
Shenaaz Meer
*
Tandazwa Ndita
*
Vincent Saldanha
*
Monde Samela
*
Elize Steyn
*
Anton Veldhuizen
*
Basheer Waglay
*
James Yekiso
*
Dumisani Zondi
There are currently five vacant seats on the Bench.
Circuits
The rural districts of the Western Cape, outside of the Cape Town metropolitan area, are divided into
circuits. Judges of the division travel the circuits at least twice a year.
* The Western Circuit sits in
Vredendal
Vredendal is a town in the northern Olifants River Valley in the Western Cape province of South Africa, with a population (according to the 2001 census) of 16,164 people. It is situated north of Cape Town on the banks of the Olifants River at th ...
and
Vanrhynsdorp
Van Rhynsdorp (Afrikaans: Vanrhynsdorp) is a settlement in West Coast District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Van Rhynsdorp was founded as Trutro ("TroeTroe") after the area was first explored by Europeans in 1661 by P ...
, and hears cases from the
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to:
Geography Australia
* Western Australia
*Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia
* West Coast, Tasmania
**West Coast Range, mountain range in the region
Canada
* Britis ...
.
* The Northern Circuit sits in
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
and
Beaufort West
Beaufort West (Afrikaans: ''Beaufort-Wes''; Xhosa: ''eBhofolo'') is a town in the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is the largest town in the arid Great Karoo region, and is known as the "Capital of the Karoo". It forms part of the Beauf ...
, and hears cases from the upper
Breede River Valley
Breede River Valley is a region of Western Cape Province, South Africa known for being the largest fruit and wine producing valley in the Western Cape, as well as South Africa's leading race-horse breeding area. It is part of the Boland borderin ...
and the
Great Karoo
The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi- desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ex ...
.
* The Eastern Circuit sits in
George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...
,
Mossel Bay
Mossel Bay ( af, Mosselbaai) is a harbour town of about 99,000 people on the Southern Cape (or Garden Route) of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometres east of the ...
,
Knysna
Knysna () is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. and is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It lies at 34° 2' 6.3168'' S and 23° 2' 47. ...
and
Oudtshoorn
Oudtshoorn (, ), the "ostrich capital of the world", is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, located between the Swartberg mountains to the north and the Outeniqua Mountains to the south. Two ostrich-feather booms, during 1865– ...
, and hears cases from the
Garden Route
The Garden Route (Afrikaans: ''Tuinroete'') is a stretch of the south-eastern coast of South Africa which extends from Witsand in the Western Cape to the border of Tsitsikamma Storms River in the Eastern Cape. The name comes from the verdant an ...
and the
Little Karoo
The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...
.
* The Southern Circuit sits in
Swellendam
Swellendam is the fifth oldest town in South Africa (after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, and Paarl), a town with 17,537 inhabitants situated in the Western Cape province. The town has over 50 provincial heritage sites, most of them b ...
and hears cases from the
Overberg
__NOTOC__
Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the e ...
and the lower Breede River Valley.
* The Cape Circuit sits in
Paarl
Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...
and
, and hears only criminal cases from the
Boland and the
Helderberg
Helderberg refers to a planning district of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality, the mountain after which it is named, a wine-producing area in the Western Cape province of South Africa, or a small census area in Somerset West.
Or ...
.
References
External links
Decisions of the Western Cape Division
{{Cape Town, government
High Court of South Africa
High Court
Cape Town
1828 establishments in the Cape Colony
Courts and tribunals established in 1828